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!
This week, I found myself at the wild for the honey, you gotta say when, a raucous, modern-day commedia dell’arte romp playing New York Theatre Workshop and detailing the trials and tribulations of being alive today (there are…a few?). In addition to classic commedia clowning and some extremely of-the-moment vignettes (there was a surreal and operatic number about a pizza place COVID testing everyone??), I was struck by the opening and closing credo — in which the ensemble performed a Broadway-style 11 o’clock number declaring “I’m not so scared anymore / Well, I’m not completely not scared / but I’m totally not as scared as I was before…”
And as I sat (inside!) amid a New York that literally looked like the apocalypse, I found myself laughing at the nervous absurdity of it all, and overwhelmed with the sense that our greatest power against the march of dystopia is getting through all of it, together — perhaps while singing at the top of our lungs. Stay safe out there, and perhaps the sun will truly come out…tomorrow!!
…when you can only think as far ahead as Monday!
🌳 le jazz hot baby
Get out your finest flapper wear and dapper duds, the Jazz Age Lawn Party is back on Governors Island June 10 and 11, where you can enjoy Charleston dance lessons, live jazz bands, 1920s photo-ops and events like the Bathing Beauties and Beaus swimwear promenade (where they suggest you wear vintage-inspired or vintage 1920s suits — maybe so you can appreciate the modern joys of elastic??).
🖼️ try try again
“Innovation and progress require an acceptance of failure,” reads the creed of the Museum of Failure, open now through June 18 in Brooklyn at Industry City, where not only can you check out paeans to the short-lived inventions of Coke II, the Delorean, Google Glass but also perhaps my youth soccer career.
🏳️🌈 paws up for pride
Bring Fido in their finest rainbow collar to the Manhattan West Woof Fest: Paws for Pride June 10 for performances by Circus Amok, rainbow puppy “pawdicures” and pet tarot readings — I see a treat in your pet’s future!!
🏳️🌈 sips and songs at sig space
Signature Theatre’s Sig Space presents a lively series of PRIDE-themed events this weekend, including a PRIDE piano bar tonight June 8, the Highline String Quartet playing Iconic Queer Hits Friday June 9 and a Half Pint PRIDE social June 10!
🎬 second hand emotion
RIP Tina Turner!!! Honor the late, great musician with a screening of her biopic (starring THE Angela Bassett) What’s Love Got to Do With It at Midtown Rooftop Cinema June 9. It will be hard not to sing along!!
🖼️ have a nosh
Photographer Marcia Bricker Halperin — known for her evocative photos of 1970s Hell’s Kitchen — celebrates the release of her new photo book, Kibbitz & Nosh: When We All Met at Dubrow’s Cafeteria with a free exhibit at the Kaufman Arcade Building of a selection of photographs from the book, many of which feature the Garment District, now through August 31!
🖼️ crossing over
The New York Public Library for the Performing Arts “celebrates the fundamental contributions of artists of color and artists from immigrant or Indigenous communities to the history of modern dance” in their newest photo exhibit Border Crossings: Exile and American Modern Dance 1900-1955 now open through March 2024 where you can learn more about the many marginalized and previously excluded contributors to the modern dance landscape like Si-Lan Chen, Katherine Dunham, Edna Guy, Michio Ito, José Limón, Pearl Primus, Uday Shankar, Anna Sokolow, and groups like the New Dance Group and the American Negro Ballet Company.
SPONSORED POST
Join the Intrepid Museum for a conversation on the contributions and experiences of LGBTQ service members and military children! Tickets and more info here…
🌸 season of change
OK, ASIDE from the dystopian, distressing wildfire smoke outside it’s been a beautiful spring. Once we’re back into blue sky territory, head to the New York Botanical Garden to see artist Ebony G Patterson’s newest landscape exhibit …things come to thrive…in the shedding…in the molting… now through September, where “Patterson’s work explores entanglements of race, gender and colonialism while inviting visitors to contemplate their own relationships with gardens and the natural world.”
🎶 back on the (summer)stage
Should the air clear this weekend (????) you can head to Central Park for this weekend’s Summerstage line up of St Paul and the Broken Bones, Say She She, Mwenso & The Shakes, DJ Alisa Ali!
👯 the ritual
Inspired by legendary playwright Ntozake Shange, author of for colored girls… as well as the public housing communities of San Juan Hill, Sydnie L Mosley Dances presents PURPLE: A Ritual in Nine Spells at Lincoln Center Clark Studio Theatre June 9–25!
🎭 send ‘em love
Irish Rep’s Love Letters, AR Gurney’s hit play about a lifelong relationship starring Matthew Broderick and Laura Benanti may be semi-sold out, but there is a daily TodayTix lottery and cancellation line through June 9!
🎤 what is: pride month
Comedians Honey Pluton and Spike Einbender host a cohort of contestants in the “queer-ed up” version of Jeopardy, JEOPARGAY! at Union Hall June 11, where they promise “you’ll reply with the question, ‘what IS an unforgettable night’”!
👯 picnic performance
Should the skies clear soon, you can enjoy an evening of performances from students from the Joffrey Ballet Concert Group at Bryant Park, who open the show for Jennifer Muller/The Works and Dance Heginbotham this Friday June 9!
…what’s happening before and just after I hit your inbox next!
🎶 salute to sir paul
The Irish Rep’s annual gala pays tribute to the decades-long career of Sir Paul McCartney at All My Loving, playing the Town Hall June 12, featuring performances from Broadway greats Michael Cerveris, Melissa Errico, Kathryn Gallagher, Peter Gallagher, Amber Gray, Kylie Kuioka and Ciarán Sheehan!
🎬 “it’s all happening”
We’re not all built to be Hunter S Thompson-style Rolling Stone journalists (I think they would deem me a square lol???) but we can pretend at the screening of Almost Famous June 12 at Bryant Park!
🏳️🌈 bare it all
I’m embarrassed to say that it took me 15 years to make it to Broadway Bares, but after having attended last year, it’s a must-see!! Head to the Hammerstein Ballroom to witness incredible feats of dance and high-risk costume changes June 18 and raise money for Broadway Cares / Equity Fights AIDS this PRIDE month!!
…for when you need to secure those hot tickets before they sell out!!!
🧘 namaste
Join your fellow neurotic New Yorkers in looking for a moment of zen among the costumed characters and comedy show hawkers at the 21st Annual Solstice in Times Square: Mind Over Madness Yoga class June 21. It’s good practice for the next time you get stuck on a rush hour train!!
🎧 simon says
“Yes, and” -it with Improv Everywhere’s The MP3 Experiment. Sign up to participate in an auditory adventure where you’ll follow secret instructions to form a public performance (last year there was a giant “wave” in the Meatpacking District!) via headphones with your fellow improv-ers June 24!
🔥 Hot tip
If you’re always cursing yourself for missing out on your favorite museum’s monthly “free day”, there is redemption!!! Head over to the Museum Mile Festival Tuesday June 13 for free admission to the Guggenheim, Met, The Africa Center, Cooper Hewitt, the Jewish Museum, El Museo del Barrio, Neue Galerie New York and my perennial fave, the Museum of the City of New York, as well as open streets, local food vendors and live music!
⚠️ Omg I forgot to tell you
Ava Max plays Irving Plaza tonight
There’s a PRIDE Month food festival at Manhattan West June 14 and 15
There’s a RE/DONE and Glossier sample sale now through Sunday
Photoville Festival is back now through June 18
That’s it for now! Call me beep me if you want to reach me! (sarah@w42st.com)
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