NYC events in March 2026

Orchids aren’t supposed to feel gritty. They’re usually framed as precious, tropical and politely removed from real life. But the New York Botanical Garden’s upcoming annual orchid show flips that idea on its head, then plops it onto a city stoop, a bodega, scaffolding, a subway station and more.

Running through April 26, “The Orchid Show: Mr. Flower Fantastic’s Concrete Jungle” has transformed the garden's Enid A. Haupt Conservatory into a bloom-laden remix of the city itself. Imagine taxis dripping in orchids, fire hydrants flowering over and everyday street scenes electrified by thousands of plants from around the world. 

For the anonymous floral designer Mr. Flower Fantastic, this marks his first solo exhibition inside a major institution—and he’s gone big. Rather than focusing on individual floral pieces, the New York-born designer has created an entire environment inspired by the city’s everyday scenes, from laundromats and pizza joints to the anonymous corners we rarely notice.The exhibition, the NYBG emphasizes, is not just about orchids’ global reach, but also a reminder of their local relevance. While many species originate in tropical regions, orchids also grow in New York State and the garden's scientists continue to research and protect native varieties. The show leans into that dual identity: worldly and hyper-local but delicate and tough enough to survive a city that never stops moving.

He's one of the art history's greatest figures, but until now, Italian Renaissance genius Raphael has not been the subject of a comprehensive, international loan exhibition in the United States. The Metropolitan Museum of Art will soon change that when it opens an exhibition titled Raphael: Sublime Poetry, on view March 29 to June 28, 2026. 

The sprawling show will focus on Raphael (Raffaello di Giovanni Santi, 1483–1520), who is considered one of the greatest artists of all time. The exhibition will offer a chance to dig into the full breadth of his life and career, from his origins in Urbino to his prolific years in Florence, where he began to emerge as a peer to Leonardo da Vinci and Michelangelo. It ends with a look at his final decade at the papal court in Rome.

Expect to see more than 200 of Raphael's most important drawings, paintings, tapestries and decorative arts—both his renowned masterpieces as well as rarely seen treasures. The juxtaposition is set "to reveal an extraordinarily creative mind," per Met officials.

After a sold-out 2025 run, Edge and live-event producer Fever are bringing back their Candlelight Evenings series, this time with a string quartet worthy of Lady Whistledown.

Bridgerton Candlelight Evenings at Edge will take place from 8pm to 9pm for just five nights (February 28, March 1, March 6, March 7 and March 13). Expect standing-room-only indoor pop-up performances featuring classical takes on the show’s swoony pop covers, all set against 360-degree views of the Manhattan skyline from 100 stories up. Thousands of candles will illuminate the space, transforming the sleek observation deck into something closer to a royal ballroom in the clouds.

The experience is open to all Edge ticketholders, meaning you can pair your concert moment with a wander onto the outdoor sky deck with its glass floor, angled glass walls and skyline steps spanning the 100th and 101st floors. During non-performance windows, all guests can take part in Bridgerton-themed photo ops, including an 8-foot wisteria arch and a Victorian-inspired gold-framed mirror.

At the moment, everyone (us included) is obsessed with Love Story, Ryan Murphy’s glossy take on the courtship and marriage of John F. Kennedy Jr. and Carolyn Bessette-Kennedy. And on Sunday, March 8, New Yorkers especially enamored with the relationship (and with JFK Jr. himself) should make their way to Washington Square Park, where a JFK Jr. lookalike competition is set to take place. The contest is scheduled for 1pm, right beneath the iconic Washington Square Arch. There’s a $250 cash prize for the contestant who most resembles JFK Jr. 

Two of Mexico's most beloved artistic and cultural icons—Frida Kahlo and Diego Rivera—will be rightfully celebrated in a new MoMA exhibition presented in conjunction with the Metropolitan Opera and its production of El Último Sueño de Frida y Diego (May 14–June 5, 2026). On view from March 21 through September 12, 2026, the exhibit will showcase five paintings and a drawing by Kahlo and over a dozen works by Rivera pulled from MoMA's collection, in an elaborate installation designed by Jon Bausor, the set and co-costume designer of the opera.  Photographic portraits of the artists by the likes of Lola Álvarez Bravo and Leo Matiz will also be on view.

New York’s most debated staircase is ready for another comeback. Vessel, the towering honeycomb-shaped structure at Hudson Yards, will reopen to visitors on Monday, March 9, just in time for the late-winter thaw and the start of spring sightseeing season.

The 150-foot-tall landmark will once again welcome guests daily from 11am to 7pm, offering panoramic views of the Hudson River, the West Side skyline and the ever-expanding Hudson Yards campus. Tickets are already on sale online, but locals get a perk: New York City residents can score free Thursday reservations with proof of ID, plus a limited batch of free day-of tickets released each week.

NYC offers a bevy of ways you can show solidarity for your sisters during Women’s History Month. New York ladies are getting in formation by hosting a series of cool events, from comedy shows to workshops and more.

Broadway is about to get a little wetter, louder and a lot more Céline. Titanique, the gloriously unhinged musical comedy that reimagines Titanic through the powerhouse ballads and fever-dream narration of Céline Dion, is officially sailing onto Broadway this spring for a limited run.

The award-winning hit will begin performances on March 26, 2026, with opening night set for April 12 at the St. James Theatre (most recently home to The Queen of Versailles). The engagement is slated to run for 16 weeks, through July 12, marking the long-anticipated Broadway debut of a show that’s already conquered Off Broadway and much of the world.

If you missed its previous runs, we'll start by saying that Titanique is not a subtle take on the 1997 film. Co-written by Marla Mindelle, Tye Blue and Constantine Rousouli, the musical gleefully hijacks James Cameron’s epic romance and hands the storytelling reins to Dion herself, who insists on utilizing her greatest hits to explain what really happened to Jack and Rose. The result is a campy, high-octave spoof packed with powerhouse vocals, absurd humor and deeply committed chaos.

Queens' own Robert Mapplethorpe is the subject of an expansive (literally) new photography exhibition at the Gladstone Gallery. From March 5 through April 18, the West 24th Street space will display 16 new large-scale, limited-edition photographs by the American photographer, organized in collaboration with the Robert Mapplethorpe Foundation. Most of the pieces will be presented in sprawling 60x60 inch format, ranging in subject from florals to female nudes to famous folks (Grace Jones, Patti Smith) and much more. Altogether, the works "demonstrate Mapplethorpe’s obsession with perfection, which he employed in his practice as a whole," per the gallery. 

Mark your calendar: on March 21, 2026, the New Museum is throwing open the doors to its long-awaited new building—and New Yorkers get first dibs with free admission all opening weekend.

The 60,000-square-foot expansion, designed by OMA’s Shohei Shigematsu and Rem Koolhaas in collaboration with Cooper Robertson, doubles the museum’s gallery space and gives the Bowery icon a major glow-up. The new addition slips in right next to the existing SANAA-designed building, bringing a larger Sky Room, a new 74-seat forum for talks and screenings and a street-level entrance plaza that finally gives the museum some breathing room.

Inside, the reopening exhibition, "New Humans: Memories of the Future," takes over the entire expanded building with work by more than 200 artists, writers, scientists and filmmakers, exploring how technology and social change keep reshaping what it means to be human. There’s a mix of contemporary heavy-hitters like Hito Steyerl, Wangechi Mutu and Anicka Yi alongside 20th-century visionaries including Salvador Dalí, Hannah Höch and H.R. Giger. There are also new site-specific commissions, like a façade work by Tschabalala Self and a monumental sculpture by Klára Hosnedlová.

New York’s ongoing matcha obsession is getting a serious carb-forward upgrade this spring. Starting March 5 through the end of the month, Breads Bakery is rolling out a limited-time, matcha-packed menu that leans just as heavily into pastries and desserts as on cafe classics.

The brewed lineup includes a classic matcha latte, available hot or iced and made with your milk of choice, plus a straight-up whisked matcha for purists who want the full grassy, bold flavor without distractions. The real headline, though, is the baked menu. There's now a playful green twist on some of the bakery’s signature formats, including the Matchalach, a flaky laminated take on rugelach filled with creamy matcha, as well as matcha brioche buns stuffed with smooth pastry cream. A velvety matcha pound cake brings understated sweetness and crisp shortbread cookies with dark chocolate chips lean into the tea’s slightly bitter edge.

The limited-time lineup will be available at Breads Bakery locations across Manhattan—including Union Square, Bryant Park, Rockefeller Center, the Upper West Side and the Upper East Side—so consider this your cue to lean fully into green tea season while it lasts.

Opening March 16 at the New York Transit Museum’s Grand Central Gallery & Store, "Inspired by MetroCard" explores how the humble fare card evolved into a creative canvas for artists, designers and institutions across the city. The free exhibition pulls from contemporary artworks and the museum’s own collection to show how MetroCards have been transformed into fashion pieces, sculptures, paintings and collages, as well as limited-edition cards.

Rather than treating the MetroCard solely as transit technology, "Inspired by MetroCard" presents it as an accessible design object, one handled by almost every New Yorker and that material artists repurposed in strikingly personal ways. The show includes rare art MetroCards, fashion collaborations and works created from expired or discarded cards.

Among the highlights are works by artists as different as Nina Boesch, Barbara Kruger, Nina Vishneva, Thomas McKean and VH McKenzie, who have turned the cards into everything from mosaic tiles to canvases and even a wedding dress.

Wolf whistles are bound to ensue as Austin McCormick and his risqué neobaroque dance-burlesque troupe Company XIV present their latest dazzling spectacle: a lavish erotic reimagining of the classic fairy tale Little Red Riding Hood. Along with the dancers, you can expect circus performers, singers and titillating costumes. Leave the kids at home!

Everyone's favorite foul-mouthed teddy bear is back this March, and Peacock is rolling out the red carpet with a night of bowling, debauchery and '90s nostalgia. To celebrate the new season of Ted, Peacock is taking over The Gutter for a house party that will take things all the way back to 1994. The Lower East Side bowling alley will trade its usual dive-bar cool for two nights of senior-year chaos, inspired by Ted and John’s latest misadventures.

The goal here is to get your head out of the clouds and back into the gutter, right where Ted likes to be. The party is set to be a throwback basement bash, complete with analog charm and IRL energy. There will be bowling (with a Ted twist), classic games, retro surprises, exclusive clips from the show, a few irreverent Easter eggs and nods to the show’s working-class Boston roots.

The party runs Friday, March 6 from 4pm to 1am and Saturday, March 7 from 1pm to 1am. It’s first-come, first-served and free to enter, with 18+ welcome until 7pm and 21+ after.

This thrilling reconception of Andrew Lloyd Webber and T.S. Eliot's musical not only rescues Cats from the oversize junkyard but lifts it to unexpected heights. Directors Zhailon Levingston and Bill Rauch embrace the musical’s inherent strangeness by absorbing it into queerness: The show’s secret ball for cats is now a ballroom runway competition of the kind recently visited by TV’s Pose and Legendary. This concept—let’s call it Paris Is Purring—is ideal for the musical’s revue-like structure, and the show’s wispy plot is clearer than it has ever been; the fur truly flies. After an already-legendary run at PAC in 2024, the production moves to Broadway with most of its original cats, including André De Shields, Chasity Moore, Sydney James Harcourt, Dudney Joseph Jr., Robert “Silk” Mason, Emma Sofia and ballroom elder Junior LaBeija. Newcomers to the ensemble include vogue mistress and Legendary judge Leiomy. 

Hitting a Yankees game couldn’t be more quintessentially New York. The Major League Baseball team, which won the World Series in 1978, 1996, 1998, 1999, 2000 and 2009, made it to the World Series again in 2024! To date, the Yankees have won 27 World Series in 42 appearances, the most in the MLB in addition to major North American professional sports leagues. Through 2024, their all-time regular season winning percentage is .569 (a 10,778 – 8,148 record)—the best of any team in MLB history.

Grab your tickets now to see NYC in action!

Now open in the museum’s Amphitheater Gallery through May 31, “Stories and Set Designs for The Sopranos” explores how the HBO series built its unforgettable world, from Tony’s suburban New Jersey home to the neon glow of the Bada Bing. Drawing from Chase’s personal archive, the exhibition brings together scripts, notes, concept art and design plans that trace the show’s narrative and visual language from the pilot episode to its installation as a cultural phenomenon.

If you’ve ever wondered how a strip club or pork store makes its way into a museum context, that’s kind of the point. The exhibition reframes the show’s locations as feats of production design, showing off the work behind the environments that helped redefine prestige TV way before streaming made it a buzzword.

Whether you’re a diehard fan who still debates that ending or just here for the nostalgia (and maybe a glimpse of Carmela in the flesh), MoMI’s latest show proves that Tony Soprano’s world still has plenty of stories left to tell.

Heist, heist, baby! The Bear co-stars Jon Bernthal and Ebon Moss-Bachrach play would-be bank robbers who find themselves in a sweaty standoff with the police in this stage adapation of Sidney Lumet intense 1975 thriller, which was itself inspired by a real-life 1972 incident in Brooklyn. England's Rupert Goold (King Charles III) directs the world premiere; grit master Stephen Adly Guirgis, who earned a Pulitzer Prize for Between Riverside and Crazy), adapts Frank Pierson's Oscar-winning screenplay. The supporting cast includes John Ortiz, Spencer Garrett and the invaluable Jessica Hecht.

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!

Richard O'Brien's delirious and oddly touch-a-touch-a-touch-a-touching spoof of science-fiction and horror B flicks—a mix of satire, rock & roll and anything-goes queer sensibility— didn't last long in its 1975 Broadway debut, but it spawned a film that became the fairy godmother of all midnight movies and attracted a rabid cult following that continues to this day. Sam Pinkleton (Oh, Mary!) directs the Roundabout Theatre Company's revival, which features a high-wattage and appropriately ecelectic cast. British heartthrob Luke Evans stars as the show's strutting, lingerie-clad "sweet transvestite" antihero: the alien mad scientist Dr. Frank-N-Furter, whose idea of Frankenstein's monster is a blond muscle boy. His extended entourage includes Juliette Lewis, Amber Gray, Michaela Jaé Rodriguez, Josh Rivera and Harvey Guillén; Stephanie Hsu and Andrew Durand are the squares who get stranded in their midst, and the lovable Rachel Dratch serves as narrator.

If you're a fan of Survivor, you won't want to miss "Outwit, Outplay, Outlast: Celebrating 50 Seasons of Survivor." Running through May 31, the exhibit will be an immersive, nostalgia-heavy tribute to the CBS juggernaut. It will feature some of the show's most memorable moments and will give visitors the chance to step into the winner-takes-all world of Survivor.

The exhibit celebrates 50 seasons with actual items from the show and plenty of behind-the-scenes photos. There will be authentic outfits worn by Jeff Probst and castaways, immunity idols and necklaces and a torch snuffer. View original sketches for logos, sets and props. There’s even a chance to snap a pic with the iconic torch and sit at a replica Tribal Council. While the museum hasn't revealed exactly which iconic wardrobe pieces will make an appearance, fans are hoping for the infamous Q skirt, Boston Rob Mariano’s Red Sox hat or perhaps Angelina Keeley’s jacket. In addition to the artifacts, the exhibit will include plenty of photos and videos spanning all fifty seasons, plus screenings of classic episodes in the Paley Museum’s Bennack Theater.

If you ever lost an afternoon chasing ghosts, the Paley Museum has your next field trip lined up. The midtown mainstay is celebrating one of gaming’s most beloved icons with a new exhibit, “45 Years of PAC-MAN,” running through May 31.

The show traces how a simple yellow circle dreamed up in Japan in 1980 by designer Toru Iwatani grew into a global pop-culture heavyweight. At the exhibition, visitors can jump straight into the action with classic Pixel Bash arcade cabinets, competitive rounds of PAC-MAN Battle Royale Chompionship and newer titles like PAC-MAN WORLD 2 Re-PAC. There’s also a chance to tackle what the museum bills as the world’s largest PAC-MAN.

Beyond the gameplay, the exhibit digs into the design moves that made the franchise so influential, like introducing power-ups, giving enemies distinct personalities and using sound and animation to turn pixels into emotion. PAC-MAN helped shape the blueprint for modern gaming culture, from storytelling to merch that’s still flying off shelves four decades later.

Dust off your popcorn instincts and your sense of wonder: Ringling Bros. and Barnum & Bailey is officially returning to New York this winter. The “Greatest Show on Earth”—which now boasts a reimagined, all-human spectacle—will land at UBS Arena from March 6–8. 

This isn’t the circus you remember from childhood, though. After shuttering its tents in 2017 amid declining ticket sales and growing concerns about animal welfare, Ringling spent years rethinking what a modern circus could look like. When it returned three years ago, it did so with a fully animal-free format, leaning instead into global performance, music and arena-scale production. The current tour, overseen by Feld Entertainment, continues that approach, turning the circus into a live, high-energy cultural mashup rather than mere nostalgia.

The two-hour show is powered by live music, DJ-driven transitions and constant movement across the arena floor. Acts come from around the world, including a Colombian acro-salsa troupe that turns dance battles into airborne events; a U.S.-based contortionist who treats flexibility like a superpower; and acrobatic bike and hoop-diving performers from China. You can expect aerial stunts, precision balance work and large ensemble moments.

The formidable duo of Rose Byrne (If I Had Legs I'd Kick You) and Kelli O'Hara (Days of Wine and Roses) play married ladies who booze it up as they await the arrival of a shared French paramour from their rather scandalous single days in a rare revival of this early comedy by the paradigmatic Brit wit Noël Coward. Roundabout Theatre Company's interim artistic director, Scott Ellis (Pirates!), oversees the naughty fun.

Need a laugh? The Second City—the renowned comedy club with locations in Chicago and Toronto—just opened in Brooklyn, and you will definitely laugh out loud there. The New York City venue, which opened on the legendary club’s 65th anniversary, offers hilarious live comedy every single night of the week.

Some of the funniest names in comedy got their start at Second City. Just a few Second City alumni include: Bill Murray, Eugene Levy, Catherine O'Hara, Amber Ruffin, Keegan-Michael Key, Chris Farley, Tina Fey, Stephen Colbert, and Aidy Bryant. You might just see the next comedy star on this stage.

The venue offers sketch shows and improv performances, along with a great restaurant and no drink minimums in a beautiful venue. Tickets start at $39.

New York City is full of free outdoor art that you don't even have to go to a museum to see. Sculptures, murals and photographs can be found in its parks, sidewalks and on its buildings!

Best of all, it costs you nothing to pay a visit. Below, find the best outdoor art in NYC to brighten up even the coldest winter day.