What is open in nyc right now

What to Do in New York City in October

Oct. 19, 2022

Looking for something to do in New York? Check out the band Sloppy Jane in Brooklyn or see the American Ballet Theater’s fall opening at Lincoln Center in Manhattan.

Comedy | Music | Kids | Film | Dance | Theater | Art


Comedy

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What is open in nyc right now

Credit...Arin Sang-urai

Diwali Party

Oct. 23 at 7:30 p.m. at the Bell House, 149 Seventh Street, Brooklyn; thebellhouseny.com.

Diwali, the annual festival of lights during which Hindus and Sikhs honor the power of good to defeat evil, might not yet be an official city holiday, but that’s not going to put a damper on Arti Gollapudi andMaya Deshmukh’s festivities. The comedians will celebrate with some of their funny friends, including Aparna Nancherla (“Corporate,” “Search Party”); Sunita Mani (“GLOW,” the upcoming Apple TV+ movie “Spirited”); the co-hosts from “Kutti Gang,” Z ubi Ahmed and P ooja Reddy; and Proma Khosla, who is a senior TV writer at IndieWire. D.J. Rekha and D.J. Cardamami will keep the party moving with dance beats before and after the standup sets.

This year’s event will also serve as a fund-raiser to provide flood relief to Pakistan through theAlkhidmat Foundation. Tickets are $15 and available at Eventbrite. SEAN L. McCARTHY

Music

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Credit...Gabriela Bhaskar/The New York Times

Pop & Rock

Sloppy Jane

Oct. 23 at 6:30 p.m. at Elsewhere, 599 Johnson Avenue, Brooklyn; elsewherebrooklyn.com.

A lot has changed for Sloppy Jane since its days on the Los Angeles punk circuit: Back then, the band’s sound leaned toward abrasive avant-rock, it embraced the provocative aesthetics of feminist performance art, and the not-yet-famous songwriter Phoebe Bridgers was the bassist. Now, the group led by Haley Dahl is more of a gothic pop orchestra, but its commitment to spectacle endures. For its most recent album, last year’s “Madison,” the band ventured to new, subterranean frontiers and recorded the entire project in a cave, capturing otherworldly acoustics that enhanced the record’s underlying themes of alienation, death and desire.

At Elsewhere on Sunday, Dahl and company will perform songs from “Madison” after sets by the Philadelphia-based D.I.Y. group Empath and the Californian punks Niis. Tickets are around $27 and available at dice.fm. OLIVIA HORN

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Credit...Bonica Ayala

Classical

New York Philharmonic

Oct. 20-23 at David Geffen Hall, Lincoln Center, Manhattan; nyphil.org.

The clearly improved acoustics of David Geffen Hall make the risk-taking repertoire on offer during the refurbished performance space’s first month all the more enjoyable. (If you are keeping score at home, that includes recent Philharmonic performances of the jazz trumpeter Etienne Charles’s “San Juan Hill” and the composer Marcos Balter’s electronically tricked-out “Oyá.”)

The Philharmonic’s upcoming bill — on Thursday at 7:30 p.m., Friday at 8 p.m. and Sunday at 2 p.m. — augurs for one more intriguing program in the new sonic environs. The orchestra and its music director, Jaap van Zweden, will provide another freshly minted piece: “Microfictions, Vol. 3,” by the Pulitzer-winning composer Caroline Shaw. (Roomful of Teeth, the vocal group in which Shaw participates, will also be on hand for the performances.) Topping off the night is Florence Price’s rarely heard Symphony No. 4, with its climatic Scherzo (which references the Black spiritual “Wade in the Water”). SETH COLTER WALLS

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Credit...Maike Schulz

‘Nightfall: Eternal Returns’

Oct. 20-21, 7-10 p.m., at Green-Wood Cemetery, 500 25th Street, Brooklyn; green-wood.com.

As activities go, strolling through a cemetery at night ranges from eccentric to suspect to possibly perilous. But it will be both encouraged and worthwhile at Green-Wood Cemetery on Thursday and Friday, when the landmark’s “Nightfall” event resumes after a pandemic hiatus.

Not only will visitors be able to take in the nocturnal splendor of the 184-year-old cemetery as they amble along a series of lighted paths, they will also be treated to short films screened by Rooftop Films, performances from the Bindlestiff Family Cirkus, lectures presented by Morbid Anatomy, tales spun by storytellers from the Moth and music from the theremin and harp guitar duo Crying Spiders, as well as from the organizations Death by Classical and the Afro Latin Jazz Alliance. Kiosks along the paths run by the Kings County Brewers Collective will offer beer and wine.

Tickets are $75 for the general public and $70 for members. The event is open only to those 21 and older. Be prepared to walk up hills and over uneven terrain and bring a flashlight. DANIELLE DOWLING

Kids

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Credit...via 92nd Street Y

‘Messy Millie: The Musical’

Oct. 22 at 10:30 a.m. and 12:30 p.m. at Merkin Hall, 129 West 67th Street, Manhattan; 92ny.org.

Children aren’t known for their organizational skills — especially not Millie. An elementary school student with irrepressible exuberance and creativity, Millie also has irrepressible tendencies to lose her belongings, forget her homework, arrive late and talk when it isn’t her turn.

Created by Megan Doyle — who was inspired by her own childhood struggles — and Jeffrey Sanzel, “Messy Millie: The Musical” will have its world premiere on Saturday as part of the Theater for Young Audiences program at the 92nd Street Y, New York. (“Millie” is being presented at Merkin Hall because of the Y’s renovation.) With a book by Sanzel and a score and lyrics by Andrew Heidorn, the 45-minute show explores Millie’s predicament when she realizes that her behavior is sabotaging others as well as herself.

Doyle has directed and choreographed the production, which includes Millie’s encounter with a fairy godsister who has issues of her own. Fortunately, the magic that helps solve Millie’s problems requires no special powers to wield. Tickets start at $20. LAUREL GRAEBER


Dance

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Credit...Rosalie O'Connor

American Ballet Theater

Through Oct. 30 at the David H. Koch Theater, Lincoln Center, Manhattan; abt.org.

If you are craving something sweet, indulge in Alexei Ratmansky’s charming two-act ballet “Whipped Cream,” which opens American Ballet Theater’s fall season this weekend. Introduced in 2017 and based on an early-20th-century score and libretto by Richard Strauss, this decadent, delightful romp follows a young boy in a Viennese pastry shop as he overdoses on sugar, then proceeds to dream of encounters with Princess Praline, Prince Coffee, Gingerbread Men and other treats. At its premiere, The New York Times called it an “exuberantly nutty piece,” full of visual wit and buoyed by Ratmansky’s playful yet sophisticated storytelling and staging.

The production returns on Thursday and Friday at 7:30 p.m., Saturday at 2 and 8 p.m. and Sunday at 2 p.m. Beginning on Wednesday, the program offerings will expand to include Frederick Ashton’s “The Dream,” Ratmansky’s “The Seasons,” Jiri Kylian’s “Sinfonietta” and the premiere of Christopher Rudd’s “Lifted,” performed by an all-Black cast of Ballet Theater dancers. Tickets start at $40. BRIAN SCHAEFER

Film

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Credit...Zoetrope Studios

Isabelle Huppert

Through Oct. 27 at Film Forum, 209 West Houston Street, Manhattan; filmforum.org.

In a career that has now spanned a half-century, Isabelle Huppert has been so prolific and worked with so many notable directors (Claire Denis, Michael Haneke, Bertrand Tavernier, Hong Sang-soo, Paul Verhoeven, etc.) that distilling her body of work into a six-week retrospective would be difficult. Film Forum is gamely trying to do it in three.

As the series heads into its second week, the theater will show 35-millimeter prints of two films Huppert made with Jean-Luc Godard (“Every Man for Himself,” on Saturday; and “Passion,” also on Saturday). Elsewhere, Huppert roller-skates and waltzes in Michael Cimino’s not-at-all-bad “Heaven’s Gate” (on Thursday, Saturday and Oct. 27) and plays characters inspired by infamous French crime cases for Claude Chabrol (“La Cérémonie,” on Friday, Monday, Wednesday and Oct. 27). BEN KENIGSBERG

Theater

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Credit...Sara Krulwich/The New York Times

Critic’s Pick

‘A Strange Loop'

At the Lyceum Theater, Manhattan; strangeloopmusical.com. Running time: 1 hour 45 minutes.

In Michael R. Jackson’s surreal and comic Pulitzer Prize winner, which won the 2022 Tony Award for best musical, a young, Black, queer artist working as a Broadway usher wrestles with the myriad thoughts in his head — about sex and acceptance, religion and identity — as he tries to write what he calls a self-referential musical. Starring an endearing Jaquel Spivey in his Broadway debut. Read the review.

Critic’s Pick

‘Hadestown’

At the Walter Kerr Theater, Manhattan; hadestown.com. Running time: 2 hrs. and 30 min.

Anaïs Mitchell’s jazz-folk musical about the mythic young lovers Eurydice and Orpheus won eight Tonys in 2019, including best musical, and picked up a cult following along the way. Rachel Chavkin’s splendidly designed production takes audiences on a glorious road to hell. Read the review.

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Credit...Sara Krulwich/The New York Times

Critic’s Pick

‘Six’

At the Brooks Atkinson Theater, Manhattan; sixonbroadway.com. Running time: 1 hour 20 minutes.

The half-dozen wives of Henry VIII recount their marriages pop-concert style — divorces, beheadings and all —in Toby Marlow and Lucy Moss’s upbeat musical, which has an all-female cast and an all-female band. It also now has a 2022 Tony Award for best original score, and another for Gabriella Slade’s instantly iconic costumes. Read the review.

Critic’s Pick

‘Into the Woods’

Through Jan. 8 at the St. James Theater, Manhattan; intothewoodsbway.com. Running time: 2 hours 45 minutes.

Lear deBessonet’s buzzy revival of James Lapine and Stephen Sondheim’s fairy-tale mash-up was a triumph at New York City Center Encores! this spring. Its cast teems with Broadway stars, including Brian d’Arcy James as the Baker, Sara Bareilles as the Baker’s Wife, Phillipa Soo as Cinderella, Patina Miller as the Witch, Gavin Creel as the Wolf and Joshua Henry as Rapunzel’s Prince. Fan favorite in the making: the winsome cow puppet Milky White. (Onstage at the St. James Theater. Limited run ends Oct. 16.) Read the review.

Art & Museums

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Credit...Estate Bernd & Hilla Becher, represented by Max Becher; via The Metropolitan Museum of Art

‘Bernd & Hilla Becher’

Through Nov. 6 at the Metropolitan Museum of Art, 1000 Fifth Avenue, Manhattan; metmuseum.org.

This fascinating, frankly gorgeous retrospective of a German couple who made some of the most influential art photos of the last half-century gives an overall impression of lightness, of delightful order, even sometimes of gentle comedy, though the subjects of the hundreds of images on display include cooling towers, blast furnaces and manufacturing plants. By parroting the grammar of technical imagery, without actually achieving any technical goals, their photos seem to loosen technology’s moorings. By collecting water towers the way someone else might collect cookie jars, they cut industry down to size. What made the Bechers different from their peers is that they did their mimicking from the inside: They used the language of advanced photographic technology to inhabit the technophilic world they portrayed. The just-the-facts-ma’am objectivity of their images is only achieved through serious photographic artifice. Read the review.

Critic’s Pick

‘Barbara Kruger: Thinking of You. I Mean Me. I Mean You.’

Through Jan. 2 at the Museum of Modern Art, 11 West 53rd Street, Manhattan; moma.org.

Since the late 1980s Barbara Kruger has parlayed her skills as an artist, feminist, writer and graphic designer into some of the most memorable, and resonant, public artworks of her era. And Kruger’s ideas have developed, while her use of language has become more fluid. She also makes expert use of the latest delivery systems, translating earlier works through digitalization, animation and sound. And yet, as this installation demonstrates, Kruger is continuing to work with words alone, on a very large scale and in dizzying amounts. It is an all-print, animation-free affair — also stripped of images, as are most of her big walk-in installations. The piece towers. It engulfs the three very high walls and floor of MoMA’s atrium with blocks and strands of black on white or white on black text in different sizes, with touches of green for crossing out pronouns. It feels emotional, volatile and even ominous — like these times. The shifting blocks of type can spin, Cubistically and vertiginously, if you move too fast. Slow down and the clashing subjects confront you. They posit the self as unstable and vulnerable, touch on love and war, and flirt with the end of the world. Read the review.

Critic’s Pick

‘New York: 1962-1964’

Through Jan. 8 at the Jewish Museum, 1109 Fifth Avenue, Manhattan; jewishmuseum.org.

The early ’60s — a manic era and a hinge moment between the Cold War and Vietnam; Civil Rights and Black Power; repression and liberation; beatnik and hippie; Ab-Ex and Pop — is documented in this smart, split-level show. A survey of close to 300 works of art and ephemera, it starts by putting us smack in the middle of downtown Manhattan with a mural-size photo of foot traffic on West 8th Street. It becomes era-specific in the first gallery with a selection of shots by the early ’60s pavement prowlers: Diane Arbus on the city’s waterfront, Lou Bernstein on the Bowery, Leonard Freed in Harlem, Frederick Kelly on the subway, and Garry Winogrand at the Central Park Zoo. There’s a soundtrack here, too, emanating from a vintage jukebox featuring a selection of period cuts. The museum could easily have packaged the exhibition as a small, tight institutional tale. Instead, it makes the story part of a much larger history, which unfolds chronologically on the show’s second floor. Art in New York in the early 1960s made for a heady mix. Culturally, we were perched on the edge of something and leaning forward. And a fast flip through this show’s catalog gives a sense of a national and global teetering condition. Read the review.