NYC events in January 2025

Heading to Madison Square Garden to watch the Knicks play is an iconic night out in NYC. The basketball team made the playoffs recently in the 2020-21 season led by forward Julius Randle and RJ Barrett. 

Catch them at MSG now!

Cole Escola’s Oh, Mary! is not just funny: It is dizzyingly, breathtakingly funny, the kind of funny that ambushes your body into uncontained laughter. Stage comedies have become an endangered species in recent decades, and when they do pop up they tend to be the kind of funny that evokes smirks, chuckles or wry smiles of recognition. Not so here: I can’t remember the last time I saw a play that made me laugh, helplessly and loudly, as much as Oh, Mary! did—and my reaction was shared by the rest of the audience, which burst into applause at the end of every scene. Fasten your seatbelts: This 80-minute show is a fast and wild joy ride. In this hilariously anachronistic historical burlesque, Escola plays—who else?—Mary Todd Lincoln, in the weeks leading up to her husband’s assassination. Boozy, vicious and miserable, the unstable and outrageously contrary Mary is oblivious to the Civil War and hell-bent on achieving stardom as—what else?—a cabaret singer.

If Netflix’s Squid Game was one of your favorite shows and you’re looking forward to the new season premiere this December, you’ll want to try your hand at some of the challeneges at Squid Game: The Experience here in NYC.

Set within Manhattan Mall (100 West 33rd Street by Sixth Avenue), you get into teams of up to 24 people each to complete challenges across 60 minutes, including those that appeared on the TV show (yes, you’ll get to try your hand at the iconic Red Light Green Light) plus a number of brand-new ones built specifically for the experience. Once done playing, you can enjoy a night market offering a variety of Korean and international sweet and savory foods, plus drinks.

Two New York City hotels are offering outdoor spa experiences this winter—The William Vale in Brooklyn and The Rockaway Hotel + Spa in Queens, so grab your swimwear and make a reservation. 

At The William Vale, enjoy the views while indulging in some much-needed stress relief. Bask in the heat of a barrel sauna with panoramic skyline views or soak in a cedar hot tub under the stars—or both! The experience makes for a special solo trip or a romantic date night. 

At The Rockaway Hotel, enjoy a resort-style escape not too far from Manhattan. For the winter, the hotel has transformed its patio area into a winter pool house with cedar saunas and cozy decor. Plus, the outdoor pool is open for a refreshing plunge. After your dip, you can slip into a buttery robe and relax with tabletop games.

"Hey sister, go sister, soul sister, go sister," there's a spicy new Moulin Rouge pop-up that's definitely worth going to. 

Moulin Rouge! The Musical has taken over the rooftop at M Social Hotel in Times Square with a Broadway karaoke experience this winter. Decked out in red decor and lit with chandeliers, this pop-up promises to heat up the colder days and makes an especially fun night out for Valentine's dates. Find the venue at 51st and Broadway, with the pop-up available through at least February 2024. 

Now you can belt out the lyrics to those tracks at this karaoke installation. If you need a little liquid courage, there’s a themed drink menu from M Social’s food and beverage partners, Tanduay Rum and Smoke Lab Vodka. Cocktails include The Rouge, Baby!, a twist on a rum punch, and The Sparkling Diamond, a take on a French martini.

Be sure to make a reservation to attend. Reservations can be made for an hour and 15 minutes, bookable on OpenTable. Tickets cost $50/person and include one complimentary themed cocktail.

Puppet master Jonathan Rockefeller's kaleidoscopic adaptation of Eric Carle’s classic children’s stories is a pure, kid-pleasing joy. The ravenous larva doesn’t appear until the final quarter, but there are plenty of colorful puppets, dancing and music to entrance youngsters until then. Along with the main story, the show dramatizes three of these seven other Carle books: 10 Little Rubber Ducks, The Very Lonely Firefly, The Very Busy Spider, Mister Seahorse, The Artist Who Painted a Blue Horse, Dream Snow and Brown Bear, Brown Bear, What Do You See. (A different combination of stories is performed at each show.)

The latest skating destination takes over a pretty iconic local landmark: the Oculus shopping mall inside the World Trade Center in downtown Manhattan.

Through January 2024, folks with a penchant for skating will get to do so beneath the beautiful architecture that defines the legendary structure while also enjoying live musical performances. 

The Winter Whirl roller rink will also host a wide selection of local food and beverage vendors—Eataly! Gansevoort Liberty Market! Épicerie Boulud!—and retail options, making holiday shopping easier.

Tickets, which can be found right here, include a 45-minute skating session and a rental pair of roller skates.

A refreshing new fashion exhibit at The Met hands the mic to pioneering women designers who dress women of all shapes and sizes. The exhibition shows how female designers have reclaimed the body—and are reclaiming the message in fashion.

"Women Dressing Women" showcases 80 garments by 70 makers, from couture gowns by well-known designers like Donna Karan to political garments by Katharine Hamnett to plus-size outfits by Ester Manas. The exhibition, curated by The Costume Institute, is on view at the Upper East Side museum from December 7 through March 3, 2024, included with museum admission. It highlights rare pieces from the collection, many of which are on view at The Met for the first time. 

The exhibition explores the subject through four sections: anonymity, visibility, agency, and absence/omission. Focusing on the period between the early 1900s and today, the collection offers a snapshot of fashion history and fashion trends. 

Majestic, incredible elephants are getting the spotlight in a new exhibit at The American Museum of Natural History. "The Secret World of Elephants" showcases both modern and ancient elephants, offering visitors a chance to see a full-scale model of a woolly mammoth, learn about what elephants eat, touch an elephant's tooth, listen to elephant calls and more.

The exhibition is now open in the museum’s LeFrak Family Gallery. An additional ticket is required to visit the exhibit; museum members can visit for free.

As she donned the black robe for her role on the Supreme Court, Supreme Court Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg was known to adorn the traditional garment with a wide array of collars and necklaces. 

Now, her fashion is getting the spotlight in a new photography exhibit called "RBG Collars: Photographs by Elinor Carucci." See it at The Jewish Museum on the Upper East Side through May 27, 2024. 

The installation features two dozen photographs of the late justice’s collars and necklaces taken shortly after Ginsburg died in 2020. This is the first time the Carucci’s photographs are being shown at the Jewish Museum since the images were acquired in 2021.

Explore "The End of Fossil Fuel," the latest pop-up from the NYC Climate Museum. It's free to visit in Soho and offers a bevy of eye-opening activities for all ages.

Inside the gallery, a collection of maps will put climate change issues into perspective, alongside text panels about the history of the fossil fuel industry. The exhibits trace the origins of the climate and inequality crises and how we got to where we are today. Other activations include a sticker wall where visitors commit to specific climate actions and a kids' corner with books and drawing materials.

Find the pop-up at 105 Wooster Street in Soho through April 30. The museum is free to visit and open to all. It's open Wednesdays-Sundays from 1-6pm. 

If scrolling through social media to see pictures of cute dogs and hilarious cats is a favorite pastime of yours, then this new exhibit at Fotografiska is a must-see. Titled "Best in Show," the exhibition explores the role of furry and feathered friends in our culture through more than 100 incredible photographs. 

Photos show dogs in a variety of situations, like getting baths, posing, partying, shaking their heads and even dressing up in fancy “cones of shame.” Cats, rats, bunnies, birds, reptiles, turtles and fish get their moment in the spotlight, too, at this exhibition on view in the Flatiron District through January 2024. 

The show showcases works by 25 renowned photographers. That includes William Wegman's famed Weimaraner portraits, pictures by Sophie Gamand of dogs taking baths and images by the world's first professional cat photographer Walter Chandoha. From candid photos of pets at home to posh portraits of pups at the Westminster Dog Show, each image explores the unbreakable bond between humans and their pets.

For three months in the summer of 1921, Pablo Picasso worked out of a makeshift garage studio in Fontainebleau, France, where he created both cubist and classical masterpieces. Now, for the first time since then, the works are reunited in a sprawling new exhibition at the Museum of Modern Art. 

MoMA's "Picasso in Fontainebleau," on view through February 17, is the latest show in NYC presented as part of the international Picasso celebration marking 50 years since his death.

A garage space measuring in at 20 by 10 feet served as Picasso's studio that summer. Using the exact dimensions, MoMA created a room with the garage's footprint, so museum-goers can step inside and imagine creating such large paintings in a small space. 

In that garage, Picasso created the cubist "Three Musicians" with colorful geometric shapes as well as the classical "Three Women at the Spring" with references to Greco-Roman antiquity. For the first time in more than a century, MoMA has reunited these works.

Painter Marc Chagall's lusciously vibrant works of art come to life in a new immersive experience at Hall des Lumières. Titled "Chagall, Paris-New York," the exhibition explores the prolific painter who defied labels. 

His works are projected in a larger-than-life scale, taking over walls, ceilings and even the floor of the ornate bank-turned-exhibition hall located at 49 Chambers Street in Lower Manhattan. “Chagall, Paris-New York” is now on view through 2024 with adult tickets starting at $30. In addition to the Chagall works, Hall des Lumières is also displaying works by Wassily Kandinsky. 

Inside a venue dating back 100 years into the past, a new art show explores a question of the future: How can human creativity and artificial intelligence coexist?

ARTECHOUSE, located inside an old boiler room at Chelsea Market, has debuted its latest digital art exhibition, "World of AI·magination;" tickets are on sale here starting at $21/person. To create the exhibition, ARTECHOUSE Studio developed original visual elements with generative AI systems. Designers hope to inspire visitors to consider AI as a "creative associate rather than a mere tool for innovation." 

World of AI·magination centers around a 20-minute cinematic experience with six scenes. One scene, called the Library of Magical Portals, features colossal books brimming with dreams and algorithms. Another scene called Symphony of Illusions constantly morphs, while the Infinite Maze immerses visitors into multiple parallels.

When the 50,000 runners crossed the finish line at the annual New York City Marathon this fall, they were joined in spirit by Joe Yancey Jr. and Ted Corbitt, two men who shaped the epic road race into what it is today. 

Remarkable Black athletes and coaches, Yancey and Corbitt helped break the color barrier and revolutionize long-distance running in the United States and across the globe. Just in time for the marathon, a new exhibit at the New-York Historical Society in Manhattan will honor their legacies. 

The exhibit, titled "Running for Civil Rights: The New York Pioneer Club, 1936–1976,” runs through February 25, 2024. It explores how the New York City Marathon grew out of decades of activism for racial justice.

There's a reason Chamber Magic has remained a staple in NYC's magic scene for more than two decades: It dazzles, show after show, with tricks that'll still leave you awestruck days later. 

The charming Steve Cohen, billed as the Millionaires’ Magician, conjures high-class parlor magic in the marble-columned Madison Room at the swank Lotte New York Palace. Dress to be impressed (cocktail attire is required); tickets start at $125, with an option to pay more for meet-and-greet time and extra tricks with Cohen after the show. If you've come to see a classic-style magic act, you get what you pay for.

Sporting a tuxedo and bright rust hair, the magician delivers routines that he has buffed to a patent-leather gleam: In addition to his signature act—"Think-a-Drink," involving a kettle that pours liquids by request—highlights include a lulu of levitation trick and a card-trick finale that leaves you feeling like, well, a million bucks.

Since it was first observed nationwide in January of 1986, the holiday commemorating the life of Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. has served as a reminder of his legacy to the causes of civil rights, nonviolent opposition and community service.

This year, the holiday is celebrated on Monday, January 15.

The Winter Village at Bryant Park is back in all its holiday glory. On the grounds you can peruse more than 180 shopping and food kiosks—all at one of the best NYC parks. Expect loads of handmade, unique and New York City-specific gifts for your family and friends. Work up an appetite at the 17,000-square-foot ice-skating rink and then fill up at the rinkside pop-up restaurant called The Lodge for festive cocktails and hearty food.

Don't miss the Small Business Spotlight booth, which features local minority-owned businesses. 

The Winter Village will be open through March 3, 2024.