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!
We’ve gotten to the sludgiest, gloomiest part of January — and despite the urge to make a Swiss Miss nightcap every evening and browse the Strategist for Things That I Definitely Need (what’s one more highly-rated travel mug?!!), I’m challenging myself to get out there and try something new. Sometimes it’s a swing and a miss (that really cool jazz club has a gigantic line and we’re never getting in!), but it almost always leads to another adventure (the adjacent bar has excellent spicy margaritas and people-watching!). Let’s stay open to the unknown and embrace the spontaneity of where a day out in New York leads us! Onwards!!!
❓Quick Question
What’s your best accidental New York discovery??!
👯♀️ at the ballet
Long long ago when I thought I might become a ballerina, I tried to learn Balanchine technique and was reviewed by my teachers as “entertaining” instead lol. Go see NYCB handle things a lot better at All Balanchine playing this Saturday January 28 at Lincoln Center.
🎶 ring in the new year
Keep on celebrating Lunar New Year with a special performance by the New York Philharmonic on Tuesday January 31 at David Geffen Hall, complete with featured performances by violinist Ning Feng and the option to join a pre-concert celebratory holiday gala!
🎨 fantastic fungi
Get groovy and check out Mushrooms, the new exhibition running at Fountain House Gallery tonight through March 8 and celebrating the fungi’s “role in nature, culture and medicine.”
🎭 start the clock
While I’ll always love some super long shows (time for 2 hours and 50 minutes of Les Mis, anyone???), there is something to be said for a jaunty one-act. Catch the Chain Theatre Winter One Act Festival running Friday January 27 through Sunday February 26 and then catch that train home at a reasonable hour, bbs.
🎭 “i’m not your cinderella…”
Enjoy an all-ages, futuristic take on the fairytale classic at Hip Hop Cinderella, playing Friday February 10 through Sunday February 26 at the New Victory Theater. In the spirit of keeping things positive here in the theater world, I’ll just say this: I’m really looking forward to this version of Cinderella. lol.
🎤 crossing the pond comedy festival
Head over to the Town Hall Saturday January 28 to catch UK-based comedian Romesh Ranganathan play an exclusive set of his signature self-deprecating humor after a sold out run at Soho Playhouse!
🎭 it’s meta
Movie stars playing movie stars: Katie Holmes plays a celebrity whose presence threatens a marriage in Roundabout Theatre Company’s The Wanderers, beginning previews Off-Broadway at the Laura Pels Theatre tonight. Weirdly enough I was not invited to a special sneak-peek so I have very little other info, but I’m intrigued!!!
🎭 put your phone away
Perhaps known even more for its scandalous audience behavior than for its Tony Award-winning performances, we hear that Take Me Out playing now through February 4 on Broadway is still a must-see (live and in-person only, y’all!!!).
🎶 gals trip
LOVE Valentine’s Day?! HATE Valentine’s Day? AGNOSTIC about Valentine’s Day? Celebrate “love in all its forms” at the rocking Galentines Show at Baby’s All Right Tuesday February 7 featuring pop-philosopher Ariana and the Rose as well as musical guests Madison Rose and Harloe.
📸 a thousand words
Celebrate Lunar New Year and the vibrant AAPI community of Queens at the free photo exhibition This is Home, telling the stories of “ the AAPI community in New York City and abroad: how they live, work, love, and when needed, stand up for what they believe.” It’s showing now through Sunday February 26 at the Flushing Town Hall.
📚 ibram x kendi and nic stone
Ahead of the launch of their new young adult book, How to be a Young Antiracist, catch authors Ibram X Kendi and Nic Stone live in conversation at the United Palace Theater Monday January 30!
🪴 grow for me
I’ve never exactly been a green thumb, but I really tried to keep this one fancy plant in my living room alive. I tried!!! Anyway, it’s dead and I should go buy a replacement at The Sill sample sale, where my investment can match the statistical likelihood that I keep this one alive 👀
🎭 bittersweet
As full of raunchy humor as it is pathos, comedian Sam Morrison takes the audience through his experience losing his boyfriend to COVID-19 in “ an outrageous journey of love, loss, diabetes, seagull attacks, and a few extraordinary coincidences” in Sugar Daddy, playing now through Friday February 17.
🍿 fight over it
If there’s one thing the Oscars consistently have going for them, it’s creating controversy!!!!!! Join in the spirit of dissent and discourse by going to see Snubbed: Great Movies, No Nominations screening now through March 12 at the Museum of the Moving Image. Featuring screenings of much-loved, Oscar-snubbed flicks, catch one and then yell about it on The Internet. Again!!
🎭 keep the appointment
Lauded as “quietly thoughtful” as it is “boisterously, hilariously transgressive” we hear that the wild, abortion-themed fantasia musical satire The Appointment playing now through February 4 at the WP Theater is a devastating and devastatingly hilarious exploration of a right we in the US are no longer guaranteed.
🔥 Hot tip
Scale up your happy hour with a trip to Free Friday Evenings at the glamorous McKim, Mead & White designed Morgan Library & Museum every Friday from 5 to 7pm. There’s live music! Cocktails! Galleries! A chance to cosplay as an Ivy League Department Chair despite only having an acting degree!!!! Let’s go!!!!!
⚠️ Omg I forgot to tell you
It’s time to sign your kids up for The Learning Center’s summer camp!
Julie Benko returns to Birdland February 6
It’s still Broadway Week until February 12
Shop indoors at the Grand Bazaar’s Winter Pop-Up Sunday January 29
That’s it for now! Call me beep me if you want to reach me! (sarah@w42st.com)
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