NY*Confidential What's On (Insider)
The Subway Edition
The Astor Place Subway Station as seen through Untapped Cities. Despite the sentiment about the modern tiles, they will never go because they were created by another NYC great.
Greetings NY*Confidants!
Last Thursday, NY*Confidential sent out the free version of the NY*Confidential Newsletter with links to sign up for the paid one. Here is a taste of the paid content, with all the listings current. Oh, and in addition to the up-to-the-day information on the best things happening in the city, subscribers receive inside looks at the tours and the culture that make New York click.
On Saturday, we took the Untapped Cities Tour of the subway, beginning at City Hall and ending at Chambers Street. Although rainy and somewhat limited due to construction (wait until Spring), the tour featured plenty of tidbits of New York lore for historians, art buffs, visitors and commuters, alike. Look for more of these previews, and in the meantime, perhaps you can tell me why a Beaver adorns the walls of the Astor Place Subway Station in the East Village? And which artist tried to update that MTA portal by riffing off it.
For ALL the events — a weekly newsletter, an advance calendar of events and alerts to happenings that will sell out — sign up at $5 per month.
A 2,100-degree furnace burns 1,300 pounds of molten glass, and Brooklyn Glass pumps out glass some of the finest glass sculptures, neon art, and lampworking in the US. See it up close on 1 Feb.
BOOK, PERFORMANCE, SPIRITS + COMEDY
NYC Restaurant Week Winter 2020: The twice-yearly celebration of dining throughout New York City. With prix-fixe meals at over 360 of the City’s finest restaurant.Various, thru 9 Feb., website.
NYC 2-for-1 Broadway Week: There’s nothing like live theater — 2-for-1 tickets to some of the most spectacular performances on stage right now. Various, thru 9 Feb., website.
Red Envelope Show: Features hundreds of original art on red envelopes by over 250 artists. Each envelope is also packed with a mystery gift for only the buyers to see.
DeKalb Market Hall, thru 17 Feb.
92Y Presents New York Review of Books, 20th-Anniversary Reading: To mark the press’s 20th anniversary, contemporary authors Edwin Frank, Leslie Jamison and Colm Tóibín read from their favorite NYRB classics. Buttenwieser Hall, 9 27 Jan.
The Art of Wax Model Making @ Madame Tussauds: Learn the art of wax model making from Hollywood A-Listers to famous world leaders — led by one of Madame Tussauds’ most experienced staff members. Madame Tussauds, 29 Jan.
PEN Out Loud Presents Saidiya Hartman with Leslie Jamison: The 2019 MacArthur Genius Fellow celebrates the paperback release of her radical historical narrative, Wayward Lives, Beautiful Experiments, in conversation with bestselling author Leslie Jamison (Make It Scream, Make It Burn). Strand Bookstore, 29 Jan.
Books Are Magic Presents Rabeah Ghaffari, To Keep the Sun Alive: In the northeastern city of Naishapur, Iran, 1979, a retired judge and his wife, Bibi, struggle to keep her family together. It’s just life in pre-Revolutionary Iran. 225 Smith St, Brooklyn, 30 Jan.
92Y Presents JoJo Rabbit Director Taika Waititi in Conversation: Join the Academy Award-nominated writer and director of Jojo Rabbit, Taika Waititi, discuss the WWII satire. Buttenwieser Hall, 30 Jan.
Exploring the United Palace ‘Wonder Theatre’: Step inside the largest theater on Broadway to see the Byzantine-Romanesque-Indo-Hindu-Sino-Moorish-Persian-Eclectic-Rococo-Deco architecture of one of the five Loew’s “Wonder theatre” movie palaces built in 1929. United Palace, 31 Jan.
See Brooklyn Glass, NYC's Premier Glassblowing and Neon Art Facility: With a 2,100-degree furnace burning 1,300 pounds of molten glass, one facility in Brooklyn pumps out some of the finest glass blowing, neon art, and lampworking in New York City. Brooklyn Glass, 1 Feb.
Winter Tour & Beer Tasting @ The Bronx Brewery: A private tour and tasting at The Bronx Brewery, which transformed a 1920s ironworks showroom into a state-of-the-art brewery. The Bronx Brewery, 1 Feb.
Books Are Magic Presents Alexis Coe, You Never Forget Your First:Young George Washington was raised by a struggling single mother, caused an international incident, and never backed down. But after he married Martha, Washington became the kind of man who named his dog Sweetlips. 225 Smith St., 3 Feb.
New Republic Presents André Aciman, Find Me: In Find Me, Aciman, the author of Call Me By Your Name picks back up with Elio, Oliver, the Perlman family, and his own mastery of sensibilities across time. Strand Bookstore, 4 Feb.
Art of Billiards Workshop with Mark Finkelstein, Professional Pool Player: Learn the art of billiards from local Mark Finkelstein, one of the country’s most celebrated pool sharks. Blatt Billiards, 5 Feb.
Community Bookstore presents Andrea Bernstein, American Oligarchs in conversation with Kai Wright: Andrea Bernstein discusses American Oligarchs, a multigenerational saga of two families, the Trumps and the Kushners. Congregation Beth Elohim, 6 Feb.
Book Are Magic Presents Bridgett M. Davis, The World According to Fannie Davis: In 1958, the very same year that Berry Gordy borrowed $800 to found Motown Records, a young mother borrowed $100 from her brother to run a Numbers racket: Fannie Davis, Bridgett M. Davis' mother. 225 Smith Street, 6 Feb.
92Y Presents Apple TV+ Little America with Kumail Nanjiani: Inspired by true stories of immigrants in America, join members of the creative team for a screening, then go behind the episode. Buttenwieser Hall, 6 Feb.
Inside Wasson Artistry, Maker of Medieval European Weapons & Armor: Most of the props you spot on your favorite medieval-themed movie or TV show are made inside an industrial warehouse in Queens. Metropolitan and Woodword Aves., Queens, 8 Feb.
'World of Oracles' Workshop with Urban Shaman Mama Donna: One of New York’s most celebrated shamans is ready to introduce you to several global spirit tools & techniques all inside her sacred ceremonial center. Includes a tarot reading. Mama Donna's Tea Garden & Healing Haven, Grand Army Plaza, Brooklyn, 9 Feb.
Greenlight Presents Katherine Rowland, The Pleasure Gap: American Women and the Unfinished Sexual Revolution: Rowland explores our culture's troubled relationship with women's sexuality and its many complex factors. Guernica Magazine co-hosts the event. 686 Fulton St., 11 Feb.
Greenlight Presents Lidia Yuknavitch, Verge: Stories: In her first major collection of short stories in over a decade, Yuknavitch turns her eye to life on the margins, in all its beauty and brutality. Actor, filmmaker, writer, and activist Amber Tamblyn moderates. 686 Fulton St., 11 Feb.
Bookish Presents Lane Moore, How to Be Alone: As both a former writer for The Onion and an award-winning sex and relationships editor for Cosmopolitan, Moore has nonetheless had her obstacles. Through it all, she looked to movies, TV, and music as the family and support systems she never had. Strand Bookstore, 11 Feb.
Winner of the 2018 Susan Smith Blackburn Prize, Anatomy of a Suicide is a revelatory exploration of mothers and daughters by Alice Birch. At Atlantic Theatre Company, opens 1 Feb.
THEATRE, DANCE + OPERA
The Confessions of Lily Dare: One woman’s tumultuous passage from convent girl to glittering cabaret chanteuse to infamous madame of a string of brothels. By famous drag artist, Charles Busch. Cherry Lane Theatre, thru 5 March.
Anatomy of a Suicide: Three generations of women. Their lives play out simultaneously. For each, the chaos of what has come before brings a painful legacy. Atlantic Theatre Company, 1 Feb. thru 14 March.
Get on Your Knees:Extended twice off Broadway, sure to move uptown: the most high-brow show about blow jobs. Comedian Jacqueline Novak spins her material on the femininity of the penis and the stoicism of the vulva into a philosophical show. Lucille Lortel, thru 16 Feb.
Dracula and Frankenstein: Widely known as a pair of macabre fantasies about blood-sucking vampires and man-made monsters, Dracula and Frankenstein scratch at the fundamental human fears of love and betrayal. Classic Stage Company, thru 8 March.
Hamlet: Critically acclaimed portrayal of William Shakespeare’s Hamlet, featuring an ensemble of leading Irish actors. St. Ann’s Warehouse, 1 Feb. thru 1 March.
Girl from the North Country: 1934. A time-weathered guesthouse in the heartland of America. Only a song can shake off the dust for one group of wayward souls. Belasco Theatre, 7 Feb. thru 27 Sept.
CLOSING SOON
Harry Townsend’s Last Stand: Meet Harry Townsend, an incurable romantic and irascible charmer who still has a sharp mind and dry wit. As his prodigal son Alan returns home, the visit raises the complexities of their relationship. New York City Center, thru 9 Feb.
Paris: Emmie is one of the only black people living in Paris, Vermont, and she desperately needs a job. When she is hired at Berry’s, a store off the interstate she begins to understand a new kind of isolation. Atlantic Stage 2, thru 9 Feb.
American Utopia: Byrne leads 11 musicians — all barefoot and dressed the same in matching gray suits — through nearly two dozen songs from the Talking Heads and Byrne’s solo years. Hudson Theatre, thru 16 Feb.
A committed social observer, Dorothea Lange paid sharp attention to the human condition, conveying stories of everyday life through her photographs and their voices. Dorothea Lange: Words & Pictures, the first MoMA exhibition of Lange’s in 50 years opens 9 Feb. .
PAINTING, PHOTOGRAPHY + OTHER
In Pursuit of Fashion: Features promised gifts from Sandy Schreier, a pioneering collector, who over the course of more than half a century amassed a trove of twentieth-century French and American couture and ready-to-wear, not as a wardrobe, but in appreciation of the art. The Met, 1000 Fifth Ave., thru 17 May, $25 suggested.
International Center of Photography Reopens: A new 40,000-sq-ft location on the Lower East Side with four exhibitions to kick things off, from historic images of the LES to a deep-fake version of the 1979 film The Warriors to Contact High, a Visual History of Hip-Hop. 79 Essex St., $16.
Jacques-Louis David Meets Kehinde Wiley: Kehinde Wiley’s triumphant Napoleon Leading the Army over the Alps (2005) comes face to face with the 19th-century painting on which it is based: Jacques-Louis David’s Bonaparte Crossing the Alps (1801) — the first time David’s original version comes to New York. Brooklyn Museum, 200 Eastern Parkway, thru 10 March, $16.
Dorothea Lange, Words & Pictures:The first major MoMA exhibition of Lange’s in 50 years, brings iconic works from the collection together with less seen photographs — from early street photography to projects on criminal justice reform. MoMA, 11 West 53rd St., 9 Feb., thru 9 May, $25.
Michael Rakowitz, The invisible enemy should not exist: An ongoing project by Iraqi-American artist, Rakowitz recreate artifacts that were destroyed or looted from the National Museum of Iraq following the 2003 US invasion. This time: a banquet courtyard within King Ashurnasirpal II’s 9th century BC palace built in the ancient Assyrian city of Nimrud. Jane Lombard Gallery, 518 West 19th St., thru 22 Feb., Free.
Salvo: An exhibition of paintings by Salvatore Mangione (1947 – 2015), a student of Italy’s restless Arte Povera movement, who switched to landscapes and cities. It highlights his early conceptual art and his astounding switch to oils, light and passage of time. Gladstone 64 130 East 64th St., thru 29 Feb., Free.
Noah Davis: Davis’s body of work encompasses lush figurative paintings and, on the other, an ambitious institutional project, The Underground Museum, a black-owned-and-operated art space dedicated to the exhibition of museum-quality art in a culturally underserved neighborhood in LA. David Zwirner, 525 and 533 West 19th St., thru 22 Feb., Free.
In Profile, A Look at Silhouettes: The art of silhouettes emerged as a popular form of portraiture in 19th-century America when there were few trained portrait painters. In Profile: A Look at Silhouettes traces the development of this popular art form and explores its contemporary revival. New York Historical Society, 170 Central Park West, thru 5 April, $28.
Collecting New York's Stories, Stuyvesant to Sid Vicious: Features highlights drawn from artists, including Bruce Davidson, Helen Levitt, Richard Sandler, Gail Thacker and Harvey Wang. A companion gallery presents original drawings by long-time New Yorker illustrator Saul Steinberg alongside gifts of garments, posters, decorative arts objects, and many other artifacts speaking to the everyday life of the city. Museum of the City of New York, 1220 Fifth Ave. (103rd St.), ongoing, $20.
CLOSING SOON
Making, Knowing, the Craft of Art: New perspectives on subjects that have been central to artists, including abstraction, popular culture, and feminist and queer aesthetics. Whitney Museum of American Art, 99 Gansevoort St., thru 31 Jan., $28.
Mark Twain and the Holy Land: Using original documents, photographs, artwork, and costumes, as well as an interactive media experience, this exhibition commemorates the 150th anniversary of one of the best-selling travelogues of all time. New York Historical Society, 170 Central Park West, thru 2 Feb., $25.
WINTER CONCERTS
Songkick, Ticketfly or Bowery Presents
Cold War Kids: 4-5 Feb., Webster Hall
Iron & Wine + Calexico: 6 Feb., Webster Hall
The Lumineers: 13-14 Feb., Barclay’s Center
Bat For Lashes: 19 Feb., Town Hall
Kamasi Washington: 20 Feb., Kings Theatre
NEW THIS WEEK
Citizen K: Intimate yet sweeping look at post-Soviet Russia from the perspective of the enigmatic Mikhail Khodorkovsky, a former oligarch turned political dissident. Film Forum, SoHo.
The Invisible Life of Eurídice Gusmão: Kept apart by a terrible lie, years pass as two sisters forge their respective paths through their city's teeming bustle, each believing the other to be half a world away. Film Forum, SoHo.
The Woman Who Loves Giraffes: In 1956, four years before Jane Goodall ventured into the world of chimpanzees, biologist Anne Innis Dagg journeyed to South Africa to study giraffes in the wild. Quad Cinema, West Village.
Knives Out: When renowned crime novelist Harlan Thrombey is found dead at his estate just after his 85th birthday, the inquisitive and debonair Detective Benoit Blanc (Daniel Craig) is mysteriously enlisted to investigate. Nitehawk, 136 Metropolitan Ave, Brooklyn.
OSCAR CONTENDERS
Ford vs. Ferrari: Based on the remarkable true story of car designer Carroll Shelby and British-born driver Ken Miles, who battled corporate interference and their own personal demons to build a revolutionary race car for Ford and Le Mans. Village East Cinema, East Village. (Best Picture)
Marriage Story: A stage director and his actor wife struggle through a grueling, coast-to-coast divorce that pushes them to their personal and creative extremes. IFC Center, West Village.(Best Picture, Best Actor, Best Actress, Best Supporting Actress)
JoJo Rabbit: A World War II satire that follows a lonely German boy whose world view is turned upside down when he discovers his single mother is hiding a young Jewish girl in their attic. Village East Cinema, East Village.(Best Picture, Best Supporting Actress)
Parasite: Meet the Park Family: the picture of aspirational wealth. And the Kim Family, rich in street smarts but not much else. The Kims provide "indispensable" luxury services while the Parks bankroll their entire household. Until a parasitic interloper arrives. IFC Center, West Village.(Best Picture, Best Foreign Film, Best Director)
Joker: An exploration of Arthur Fleck, a man struggling to find his way in Gotham's fractured society. A clown-for-hire by day, he finds the joke always seems to be on him. Cinema Village, East Village. (Best Picture, Best Actor, Best Director)
The Irishman: This biographical crime thriller follows Frank Sheeran as he recalls his past years working for the Bufalino crime family. IFC Center, West Village.(Best Picture, Best Director, Best Actor, Best Supporting Actor, )
Pain and Glory: Pedro Almodóvar’s film that tells the story of a series of reencounters experienced by Salvador Mallo, a film director in his physical decline. Some of them in the flesh, others remembered. Angelika, West Village. (Best Foreign Film, Best Actor)
Les Miserables: Stéphane as recently joined the Anti-Crime squad in Montfermeil, a sensitive district of the Paris projects. Angelika, West Village. (Best Foreign Film)
Little Women: Writer-director Greta Gerwig (Lady Bird) has crafted a Little Women that draws on both the classic novel as the author's alter ego, Jo March, reflects back and forth on her fictional life. Angelika, West Village. (Best Picture, Best Actress, Best Supporting Actress)
Honeyland: Hatidze Muratova lives with her ailing mother and is the last in a long line of Macedonian wild beekeepers. But her peaceful existence is thrown into upheaval by the arrival of an itinerant family. Quad Cinema, West Village. (Best Foreign Film, Best Documentary)
Harriet: The extraordinary tale of Harriet Tubman's escape from slavery and transformation into one of America's greatest heroes. Quad Cinema, West Village. (Best Actress)
BEFORE THE TICKETS SELL OUT
Soccer Mommy, 3 April, Brooklyn Steel
Basia Bulat, 10 April,Music Hall of Williamsburg
Peter Bjorn and John: 10 April, Webster Hall
Lukas Nelson & Promise of the Real: 15 April, Brooklyn Steel
Kurt Vile & Cate Le Bon: 16 April, Town Hall
The Lone Bellow: 17 April,Webster Hall
Stereolab: 5 May, Terminal 5
LP: 27 May, Brooklyn Steel; 28 May, Terminal 5
Songkick, Ticketfly or Bowery Presents
Events
Pop-Up Magazine: Winter 2020 Issue features stories about a soap opera’s significance in post-Soviet Russia, flying saucers and family obsessions, the criminalization of humanitarian aid at the border, learning to say what we mean—and even some cabaret. BAM Howard Gilman, 12-13 Feb.
Uptown Showdown, Optimists v. Pessimists: While optimists see the sunny side, realists know excess UV exposure leads to skin cancer. Features Janeane Garofalo (Wet Hot American Summer), Josh Gondelman (Last Week Tonight). Symphony Space, 18 Feb.
Banff Centre Mountain Film Festival World Tour: Banff Centre Mountain Film Festival takes place each fall in Banff, Alberta, with nine epic days filled with stories of remote journeys, ground-breaking expeditions, and cutting-edge adventures. Symphony Space, 29 Feb thru 3 March.
Community Bookstore presents Rebecca Solnit, Recollections of My Nonexistence: Solnit discusses her electric portrait of the artist as a young woman that asks how a writer finds her voice in a society that prefers women to be silent. Murmrr Theater, 1Brooklyn, 10 March.
The NYPL Presents Neil Gaiman, Mind of a Storyteller: British born author Neil Gaiman has described himself as a “feral child,” who grew up in libraries. He returns to discuss his 2001 classic, American Gods. New York Public Library, 13 May.
The NYPL Presents Annie Proulx, The Shipping News: The winner of the Pulitzer Prize and the National Book Award returns to the home of her personal archives to discuss her timeless novel. New York Public Library, 19 May.
Canvas
Gerhard Richter, Painting After All: Comprising over one hundred works from the artist's prolific career, this major loan exhibition will present an incisive cut through Richter's entire oeuvre, highlighting two important recent series, Birkenau (2014) and Cage (2006), exhibited in the United States for the first time. Met Breur, opens 4 March.
Félix Fénéon, The Anarchist and the Avant-Garde— From Signac to Matisse and Beyond: The first exhibition dedicated to Fénéon (1861–1944), an art critic, editor, publisher, dealer, collector, and anarchist, who championed the careers of artists from Georges-Pierre Seurat to Henri Matisse. MoMA, opens 22 March.
Theatre
Who’s Afraid of Virginia Woolf: A new company of theatrical powerhouses takes on this landmark drama, 60 years after its Broadway premiere. Booth Theatre, opens 3 March.
The Lehman Trilogy: Weaving together nearly two centuries of family history, this epic theatrical event charts the humble beginnings, outrageous successes, and devastating failure of a financial institution. Nederlander Theatre, opens 7 March.
Caroline, or Change: Sharon D Clarke stars as an African-American maid working for a Jewish family, as their colliding worlds in 1963 Louisiana ripple with change, both large and small. Direct from London's West End, this is a new production of Tony Kushner (Angels in America) and Jeanine Tesori (Fun Home). Studio 54 opens 13 March.