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!
As we approach this year’s Tony Award nominations, here’s an ode to theater people (and frankly, creatives of all kinds!). This city can be a cruel mistress of a place to try and make art and your rent on time. I, for one, will never forget the time a lovely, innocent child asked me — a person who had spent the better part of a decade at that point trying desperately to be employed as an actor: “If you couldn’t be a babysitter, what would you be?”
And yet — last week one of my friends turned 30, and his only wish was to put on a staged reading of Wicked (and play Elphaba). Friends of the birthday boy but (many of us) strangers to each other, we gathered in a humid rehearsal studio on Saturday night and gave it our Stephen Schwartz best, umbrella-as-flying-broom moments abounding. There were no casting directors, no jobs on the line, no stakes. We laughed, we cried, it was better than Cats.
Here’s to a season of celebrating all the work on (and Off! And Off-Off! And Off-Off-Off!) Broadway, and to anyone out there making their art and their rent. Here’s to us! Who’s like us? Damn few.
…when you can only think as far ahead as Monday!
🎭 a feast for the senses
West Sider Orietta Crispino presents a “epic journey through food, fashion, and fable” in her new original one-woman show Let Me Cook for You playing Theaterlab April 28 through May 28. And yes, come hungry — there is food served!!
🪴 make our garden grow
Hell’s Kitchen is in full bloom, and you can plant new seeds at the Clinton Community Garden Spring Volunteer Day 10am to 2pm Saturday April 29. Bonus — they will be selling local honey and keys to the garden from 11 to 12!
⛴️ anchors, away
Free Fridays at the Intrepid are back this Friday, April 28, where you can try out family-friendly interactive activities like making your own satellite and attend a panel discussion with former NASA Astronaut Nicole Stott and Inspiration4 Astronaut Dr Sian Proctor on art in space!
👯 waiting for the girls upstairs
The spirit of Ziegfeld comes to Hell’s Kitchen in a “night of glamorous burlesque, scintillating circus, laugh out loud comedy, marvelous music, miraculous magic and vaudeville variety” at the Midnight Theatre Follies Friday April 28, where you can take in the show with a cocktail and a nosh from Manhattan West’s Hidden Leaf!
🎭 go see the carnage
I had the pleasure of chatting with the kickass cast and creative team of Theater Breaking Through Barriers’ God of Carnage opening tonight and running through May 20 at Theatre Row. The disability-inclusive production company is mounting the first revival of Yasmina Reza’s Tony Award winning 2009 production, and from what I caught at a sneak-peek rehearsal, I can’t wait to see it!!
🍲 the world’s food festival
Talk about a staycation! Bring your appetites to the Queens Night Market sneak peek Saturday April 29 — I, for one, am ready to sample over 100 international food vendors and take in live dance and musical performances from around the world!!
🩰 all about george
Known for cofounding the New York City Ballet, his indelible impact on classical ballet (and potentially for influencing the art form’s rather unforgiving ethos IMO lol), learn more about George Balanchine at a screening of the documentary In Balanchine’s Classroom, reading from Jennifer Homans’ new book Mr B and panel discussion with New York City Ballet principals at Celebrating Balanchine at the 92nd Street Y Sunday April 30.
🚲 pedal for people
Take your Saturday spin class to Life Time Sky where “Ride of a Lifetime”, a fundraiser class for Children’s Miracle Network Hospitals and the Life Time Foundation will be held Saturday April 29. You don’t have to be a member to join in — one-day memberships are available for drop-ins who want to check out the Hell’s Kitchen fitness club!
📚 i couldn’t help but wonder!!!!!!
Yes, it’s true: there’s someone out there who is even more obsessed with Sex and the City than I am — and knows how to sew. Join Dan Clay (aka Carrie Dragshaw) for his book launch Saturday April 29 at Housing Works Soho, where the acclaimed SATC re-creator talks his first novel, Becoming a Queen.
📚 thumb through the pages
Have the bar crawl without the hangover at the Brooklyn Bookstore Crawl, where you can collect stamps for your book crawl “passport” now through April 29 — with an afterparty Saturday April 29 at the Center for Fiction!
📚 old tomes
Rounding out our book trilogy is the 63rd annual Antiquarian Book Fair April 27-30 at the Park Avenue Armory — join over 200 exhibitors of rare and out-of-print books, including treasures like a signed Babe Ruth biography once owned by Alfred Sloan.
…what’s happening before and just after I hit your inbox next!
📺 daily dulcé
Given the last week of cable media shakeups alone 👀, we predict Daily Show guest host Dulcé Sloan will have plenty to discuss the week of May 1!
📚 spiderbooks!
Get a head start on the latest Spiderman saga at Word Up Community Bookshop’s book launch of Jason Reynolds’ Miles Morales Suspended Tuesday May 2 at United Palace Theater, where Reynolds will join New York Times Magazine writer J Wortham in conversation about the latest series.
🎭 tartuffe among the trees
Even though I’m semi-haunted by my experience doing a Molière parody at theater camp in 2002, I can still appreciate the man! Go see a free performance of Molière in the Park’s Tartuffe May 6-May 27 and I guarantee it will be better than 14-year old Sarah trying to master rhyming couplets.
🎭 into the woods
During the pandemic I was lucky enough to see a Zoom reading of Jahna Ferron-Smith’s The Woods and let me tell you, even across the channels of the internet it was AMAZING! Go see the latest reading of Ferron-Smith’s work along with fellow up-and-coming writers at Second Stage’s New Voices this Monday May 1.
👯 new work alert!
Miguel Guitierrez joins Laila Franklin in I as another, a work exploring “the virtual architecture of memory, what it means to be alongside one another, and how existential despair has come into public view”, showing at Baryshnikov Arts Center May 4-7
🎶 tito 2.0
Head to Lincoln Center Jazz for a centennial tribute to contemporaries (and sometimes rivals!) Tito Puente and Tito Rodriguez May 5-6, where bassist-composer-arranger Carlos Henriquez and an all-star ensemble take the audience through the Titos’ catalogs.
…for when you need to secure those hot tickets before they sell out!!!
🎤 right to the point
Shoutout to my friend Sarah (no, I’m not talking about myself, there are a lot of Sarahs out there y’all!!) for recommending Selected Shorts at Symphony Space. The series, in which notables (sometimes celebs!!) read short stories holds its next tribute to humor mag McSweeney’s Wednesday May 10.
🩰 stop looking at me, swan
It will surprise 0% of people to know that I was obsessed with Black Swan when it came out (see: Balanchine + classical ballet cultism + a penchant for self-sacrifice lolol). While the original version isn’t quite as bonkers, Swan Lake at New York City Ballet May 19- 26 is still full of dRaMa (and fouetté turns!).
🔥 Hot tip
Are you or someone you know gluten-free? Do you MISS Italian food? I have great news for you! I had the pleasure of trying the new, celiac-friendly restaurant Senza Gluten by Jemiko last week and can report back that the pasta was unreal. I am gluten-friendly and would gladly stop by any day for their Cauliflower Parmigiana or Truffle Ravioli. Mangia!!!
⚠️ Omg I forgot to tell you
There’s a Moth Story Slam at the Bell House Monday May 1
There’s a West Side Town Hall hosted by Senator Brad Hoylman-Sigal Sunday May 7
Looking for an open mic night? There’s one every evening at Don’t Tell Mama’s
Shop the Reiss sample sale now through April 30
That’s it for now! Call me beep me if you want to reach me! (sarah@w42st.com)
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