Good afternoon, this is W42ST Lifestyle Editor Sarah Beling with “Make Way For The Weekend” — your curated guide to the best of New York events in one convenient newsletter!
I often wonder what it would be like to take a giant poster board and write up all of my past New Year’s resolutions. There would be three categories: resolutions that I made happen (shortest list lol), resolutions that were insane and/or way too vague (I really need to stop writing “get organized” every year), and resolutions that I should try, try again (going to bed early, sorry Mom).
But despite the sometimes anxiety-inducing process of assessing how this year went and what could be in store for the next, I do think that there’s a therapeutic nature to the ritual, if mostly in that it gives us a chance to reaffirm all of the things that we do and don’t want to take into 2023. Even if I never fix my sloppy sleep schedule or organize my papers, I feel a sense of renewed optimism that I will…next year. And so, perhaps in a bit of an Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind way, this is how we keep going amid what can sometimes be a Rubik’s Cube of a place to live. Next year the MTA will work!!! Or something like that.
Let’s be kinder to ourselves in 2023 and go into the New Year taking all of the joy and connection we can with us. See you next year…
We’ll be taking a quick break at W42ST and our next MWFTW newsletter will hit your inbox on January 5! Catch you l8r!!
❓Quick Question
What’s your New York New Year’s resolution (no pressure lol)
🩰 the turning pointe
Founded in 1974 in the wake of the Stonewall riots, Les Ballets Trockadero de Monte Carlo celebrates nearly 50 years of subverting classical ballet’s conventional gender classification through drag adaptations of well-known ballets at their Joyce Theater residency now through January 8!
🎶 high stakes
If the word “opera” makes your eyes glaze over, just remember that your favorite Jennifer Coolidge plot line in this season’s The White Lotus is based on the medium (I promise/don’t promise that this is the last White Lotus reference 😜). The Irish Arts Center presents a double-bill evening of modern music-theater and opera at PROTOTYPE: OPERA’s TRADE/Mary Motorhead — opening January 7 and starring the always excellent three-time Tony nominee Marc Kudisch.
🎶 santa sings in ¾ time
If your yearly holiday tradition is to watch White Christmas while breathlessly reciting every line, head on over to A Swinging Birdland Christmas December 23-25, where mainstays Jim Caruso, Klea Blackhurst and Billy Stritch host an evening of holiday stories and standards like Christmas Waltz, Kay Thompson’s Holiday Season, Sleigh Ride, I’ve Got My Love To Keep Me Warm, Snow and It Happened in Sun Valley.
🍷 bubbly in a bubble
Sip wine and take in the Big Tree but stay warm (!!!) at this year’s City Winery Wine Garden, where you can book a happy hour in one of their heated domes, now open for the season.
🎶 do i hear a waltz
Nurse your NYE hangover with a soothing matinee of operetta, ballroom and ballet at Lincoln Center’s Salute to Vienna concert, playing January 1 and the perfect way to “start your New Year off on a joyous note.”
🕎 chosen party
Billed as the hottest party for “gay Jews and those who love us,” Jewish LGBTQIA+ community Hebro is throwing a Christmas Eve Jewbilee December 24 at Blue in Hell’s Kitchen. As they put it, “Doors open at 10:30. Jewish Guilt: All Night.”
✨ what are you doing nye?!
There’s no right way to New Year (couch parties are always OK!!) but if you are looking to venture out…😎
There’s a Great Gatsby-themed party at Sony Hall where you can recreate the vibe of the Classic American novel (only the good parts!!) with a 1923-themed soiree.
If you’re looking for mystery and intrigue in 2023, Pocket Bar is not only hosting an open party party but also a secret NYE ball drop rooftop viewing adventure.
If the thought of buying lots of intricate drink mixers stresses you out, bespoke cocktail bar Lady Blue is hosting a stylish NYE — and if you want to bar hop, they’re part of the Ball Drop multi-bar ticket!
If your vibe is more 1973 than 2023 Peachy Keen is hosting an appropriately groovy bash featuring drinks, passed apps and a DJ!
Are you a spontaneous New Year’s partygoer?? New LGBTQIA+ bar complex The Dickens doesn’t require a ticket to join in on their NYE festivities!
If you’re looking to be a part of New York history, head to Carolines on Broadway for their final show in Times Square (a way to do Times Square without actually doing Times Square ya know)
If eating a pastrami sandwich is how you want to ring in 2023, stop by Brooklyn Deli’s NYE party, which features performances by Broadway stars and deli-curated apps 🙌🏻.
And for even more Hell’s Kitchen-adjacent NYE options from low-key dinner to all-night parties, check out our handy-dandy guide to New Year’s in the neighborhood
🧖♀️ frankie says relax
If the holiday season has you stressed out, decompress at the William Vale Hotel’s seasonal Winter Spa, where you can schvitz in an indoor/outdoor sauna and take in views of the city.
🟩🟥⬛️ celebrate kwanzaa!
There’s an all-ages Kwanzaa Dance Party December 30 at the much-loved Staten Island Children’s Museum featuring choreographer, author and dancer Walter Rutledge, along with percussionist Nathanial Steely and West African dancer Nubia Braithwaite!
🎄 someone else’s electric bill
Stroll over to the The Dyker Heights Christmas Lights (now through whenever they take them down??), where you can enjoy maximalist holiday cheer and the many nearby Italian bakeries!!
🎶 turn up the klezmer
Trying to tune out endless renditions of Rudolph??? Head downtown to Music at the Museum: Celebrate Chanukah at Eldridge! December 25 for a concert full of Jewish tunes and Chanukah songs with Litvakus Collective led by Zisl Slepovitch, in collaboration with Off-Broadway and National Yiddish Theatre Folksbiene actor and singer Maya Jacobson!
🎭 almost famous
If you’re sad to miss the Broadway adaptation before it closes, you can still get your Behind the Music fix at the world premiere of Rock the Line, a new play about a band of outsiders united by their devotion to a rock legend, presented by LGBTQIA+ theater company The Other Side of Silence starting January 11.
🎄light it up
Need some more fresh air?? Brooklyn Botanic Garden’s dreamy Lightscape is still open through January 8, perfect for taking next year’s holiday card photo (look at you, so on top of things!!).
🍔 a break from christmas cookies
There’s a new Urbanspace Food Market now open in Union Square featuring 13,000 square feet of New York-based specialty sandwiches, coffees, smoothies, sushi and my personal favorite, Wafels and Dinges 🤩
🛳 cruising into 2023
Set sail and wassail in style on the Harbor Lights Holiday Cruises now through January 1, where you can choose from a holiday brunch, cozy cocoa cruise or jazz jam.
🎶 soul fan
Start the new year right with Blue Note Jazz Club’s January 1 concert A Decade of Soul, where you can enjoy the hits of Four Tops, Gladys Knight, The Temptations, Aretha Franklin, Otis Redding, The Supremes, James Brown, Jackie Wilson, Smokey Robinson, Jackson Five, Ike and Tina, Al Green and more!
🎶a new york simcha
Check out the Museum of Jewish Heritage’s New York Yiddish Festival December 26 through 29 — featuring four evenings of Yiddish music, poetry, dancing and karaoke!!
🍿 dear friend
If you, like my husband, still find You’ve Got Mail to be creepy (I know I know Tom Hanks does stalk Meg Ryan and put her out of business), then enjoy the original version where the two enemies-turned lovers work together and there’s no corporate takeover. The Shop Around the Corner plays the Museum of the Moving Image December 23 and 24!
🔥 Hot tip
If your New Year’s vibe is less Ryan Seacrest and more Eyes Wide Shut (to an extent lolol), head to the McKittrick Hotel’s Midnight Ball December 31 to “indulge in a kaleidoscope of decadence where pleasure drips like diamonds. A night of scandalous wonders awaits in this lavish trip through time and space, as we relish in our lust for life.” This sounds like the kind of party where you’d need to sign an NDA — and if you do go, please let us know what went down lol.
⚠️ Omg I forgot to tell you
There’s a family Holiday concert at Museum of the City of New York December 30
You can dance the night away at elsewhere December 31
There’s a Back to the Future-esque throwback NYE party at Union Hall December 31
Check out the NYE Dance and Dine at Brooklyn Brewery December 31
There’s a beachy Rockaway Hotel NYE Rooftop Party December 31
The next morning (January 1) you can take the New Year’s Polar Bear Plunge in Coney Island
That’s it for now! Call me beep me if you want to reach me! (sarah@w42st.com)
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