The best things to do in NYC this weekend

Spring is finally arriving, and what better way to celebrate than by joining the Broadway Green Alliance and Times Square Alliance for the festive return of the Broadway Celebrates Earth Day concert?

On Saturday, April 26 from 11am–3pm, head to Times Square’s Pedestrian Plaza for the free outdoor performances, which will serve as a marquee event for the NYC Department of Transportation’s city wide “Car-Free Earth Day” and will highlight the theatre community’s ongoing efforts to combat the climate crisis with actionable steps.

Taking to the stage will be hosts Seth Rudetsky and James Wesley (Stars in the House), Tony Award winner Shaina Taub (Suffs), Tony nominee Stark Sands (Kinky Boots) and Grammy nominee Merle Dandridge (Hadestown), among others, as well as 75 musically inclined students from the tri-state area. 

Revel in warmer weather at the annual Macy’s Flower Show. NYC will be budding with blooms all over, but nothing beats roaming the sweet-smelling foliage that suddenly appears at one of the city’s best department stores: Macy’s Herald Square.

This year's theme hasn't been announced yet, but Macy's says the show will transform the store's main floor, balcony and windows. Expect "a whimsical oasis featuring the beauty and fragrance of spring as thousands of plants, flowers and trees bloom on the iconic store's main floor," Macy's officials said in a press release.

The Flower Show runs from Sunday, April 27 to Sunday May 11, 2025. 

The Brooklyn Flea's newest flea market returns to the underpass of the Brooklyn-Queens Expressway along Meeker Avenue between Union and Lorimer Avenues. Every Sunday from 10am to 5pm, peruse a trunk-style market where vendors sell vintage finds, cool collectibles, and handmade goods right out of their cars, with a lineup curated by the people behind the beloved and renown Brooklyn Flea.

Along with being a great spot to hunt for hidden gems, the BQ Flea is also a perfect weekend stop for good local food and a lackback community vibe.

For the sixth year, House of Yes is celebrating Earth Day with eco-action, creativity and dance. Open to all ages, the free event will take place at the Bushwick venue on Sunday, April 27 from noon to 6pm and will offer both indoor and outdoor festivities “designed to inspire sustainable living and creative expression,” organizers say.

Along with the fest’s diverse array of creators and speakers, climate experts, ocean conservationists, and sustainable designers, the lineup will include an electrifying live performance by Hila The Earth and immersive experiences curated by partners such as DJs for Climate Action, Future Sound of Music, Zero Waste Daniel, Absurd Conclave, and Future Meets Present.

“Green your life, move to the grooves, get inspired, and fall in love with our planet all over again,” as event planners say. Don’t mind if we do!

Walk in the footsteps of the Astors, Vanderbilts and other elite New Yorkers who lived during the Gilded Age on this new walking tour. Titled “Fifth Avenue in the Gilded Age: Address to Impress,” the tour will whisk visitors back to the late 1800s for a stroll along Manhattan's most prestigious avenue. 

Tours, bookable here for $49/person, run on April 26, May 10 and 24. Events are run by New York Historical Tours in partnership with the Fifth Avenue Association.

Open Streets: Car-Free Earth Day will close down 54 streets and plazas to vehicular traffic across all five boroughs from 10am to 4pm on Saturday, April 26. Expect community programs and public art activations in the areas as well. 

The idea is a simple one: by turning a portion of our city into a car-free zone, officials hope to promote activism and education about sustainable modes of transportation, climate change and environmentalism. This year, the NYC DOT has also commissioned five artists to come up with temporary, environmentally-focused works of different mediums along certain routes, including some by New York-based illustrators Ishita Jain and Caitlin Keegan. 

You can look through a map of all the streets and plazas set to go car-free right here. 

Shop 'til you drop at FAD Market, a curated fashion, art and design pop-up marketplace, which is back for 2025. Expect to see your favorite makers plus brand new creatives to help you live smarter, gift better and support local businesses. 

FAD—which stands for Fashion, Art and Design—takes over different venues with a horde of independent vendors and creators. Admission is free and dogs are welcome!

Peruse handmade jewelry, apparel, skincare products, tableware, artisanal packaged food, and more. Whether you're shopping for you or a friend (or even getting an early on that holiday shopping), there are plenty of local gems to pick up.

This weekend, April 26-27, find the market's Earth Month pop-up at Center for Brooklyn History in Brooklyn Heights.

It’s hard to get good food on the cheap, but for ten years, Queens Night Market has prided itself on offering the city’s best eats for just $5-6.

Ranked one of the best food festivals in the U.S., the festival runs on Saturday nights through the summer at the New York Hall of Science in Flushing Meadows Corona Park. The foodie festival runs on Saturday nights through the summer at the New York Hall of Science in Flushing Meadows Corona Park. The free festival officially kicks off on Saturday, April 26.

There will also be other items sale besides food, including vintage apparel, handmade jewelry, ceramic products, locally produced art pieces, crochet toys, stationery, and much more.

Since 2017, the Bronx Night Market has been the longest-running event series in the Bronx. You can find it in Fordham Plaza on the last Saturday of each month through October. Among the 35 vendors you can find refreshing drinks from Aguas Frescas Tlaxcalita, smoked chorizo from Casallas Kitchen and grilled lobster tail from Keez 2 The Kitchen. 

Other activities include a pop-up bookstore curated by Bronx is Reading, which will host a bunch of literary activities for folks of all ages; a new general store filled with fresh products sourced locally called Fordham Farmers Market; Bronx Native's beloved Tiny Desk concert series; and a vegan bazaar that will promote the sort of healthy foods that the "traditional" market does not regularly pay attention to.

Dates for 2025 are: April 26, May 31, June 28, July 26, August 30, September 27, and October 25.

Calling all Francophiles! The Cultural Center of the Lycée Français de New York will host the fourth edition of its annual (and free!) French cultural fair, “En Français, Oui But Why?” on Saturday, April 26 from 9:30am to 4:30pm, at the Upper East Side school.

The vibrant celebration of all things Français will showcase the diversity of the French-speaking world via performances by local artists, creative workshops for children ages 2 to 12, pétanque games for adults, roundtable discussions and book signings with renowned writers, and a live performances in French of Le Mariage de Figaro, by L’Atelier Théâtre NY.

And if that's not enough, there will be Belgian waffles to snack on!

Gear up for a lively Earth Day celebration with arts and crafts, cooking demonstrations, tasty treats, live performances and more—and did we mention it’s all free? Randall’s Island annual Earth Day Festival is back on April 26, offering an afternoon of family-friendly, interactive fun to welcome the warmer months and seasonal blooms. Embrace the park’s natural beauty as you play games, get down to live music, partake in educational activities and learn about sustainability.

“With spring right around the corner, I am thrilled to welcome patrons both old and new to Randall’s Island Park in the coming weeks,” Deborah Maher, president of the Randall’s Island Park Alliance, said in a press release. “There is never a better time to rediscover Randall’s Island. Our diverse programming slate has something for everyone, and I’m looking forward to seeing our Park vibrant and bustling!”

Oddball enclaves Coney Island and the Sideshow Hootenanny join forces for this annual ode to freakiness, taking place at Sideshows by the Seashore and the Coney Island Museum in the south Brooklyn neighborhood from Friday, April 25 through Sunday, April 27. 

This weekend-long event will celebrate unusual performers and personalities revolving around circus and sideshow art through live performances (sword swallowing, flesh piercing and the like), panel discussions, quirky workshops (beginner's fire eating, advanced mental flossing), an "art and oddities" market and much more.

You won't believe how seamlessly good comedy can work with pole dancing (you can read about it here). While stellar stand-ups deliver sets, pro dancers give the crowd something stare at. Think of it as a full-brain experience. Comics Dan Goodman, Joanna Ross and special guests will welcome talented pole dancers and comedians from across NYC. 

Each show features a different musical theme, and each one is full of surprises. This time, on Friday, April 25 and Saturday, April 26, the show all about Kendrick Lamar—"bitch, don't kill my vibe."

Expect to hear jokes from five comics and see performances by five dancers. "They're not strippers, it’s not burlesque. It’s aerial dance with a side of crazy gymnastics, and death defying tricks that make your jaw drop," event planners explain.

As the event organizers say: "If you don't see shows like this, why are you even paying the NYC rents?" See it at Drom in the East Village.

Running through April 30, the New York Public Library’s World Literature & Arts Festival will bring together trailblazers from diverse disciplines and backgrounds to celebrate storytelling—through books, performances, culinary traditions, and beyond—while shining a spotlight on NYC’s vibrant communities.

Among the lineup of free events and programs is a panel highlighting Latinx luminaries like Pulitzer Prize-winning artist Medar de la Cruz, Irma Bohorquez-Geisler and Patricia Cazorla, Libby Paloma; an ice cream social to celebrate Pooja Bavishi's latest work Malai Cookbook; an evening of poetry readings and conversation with poets Ashna Ali and Amatan Noor and more.

Cherry blossoms tend to steal the spotlight this time of year—and deservedly so. But another pastel flower is worthy of our attention, too: the tulip. These colorful flowers are about to make their seasonal debut, emerging from bulbs deep underground that have survived the winter freeze.

One of the best spots to see these botanical marvels is at the West Side Community Garden, a hidden oasis of springtime splendor that is home to more than 10,000 tulips. The volunteer-run garden will host its 47th annual tulip festival from April 12–April 27. Best of all, the massive festival is free and open to all.

Enter through a wrought iron gate on West 89th Street between Amsterdam and Columbus Avenues to find the secret garden, open daily from dawn 'til dusk. Inside, weave through paths packed with plants. How many exactly? Well, volunteers plant about 13,000 tulip bulbs every year! 

The African Diaspora International Film Festival is presenting a vibrant and captivating collection of Caribbean films this April. Taking place at Teachers College at Columbia University from April 25 to 27, the special series will highlight the island region’s most compelling cinematic voices.

The film lineup includes Haiti's The Last Meal, Curaçao's Felix de Rooy: Nomad in a No Man's World, French Guiana's Aluku Liba: Maroon Again and Sugar Island out of the Dominican Republic. Tickets and passes are available at www.nyadiff.org

Feel the Caribbean vibes at this comedy show with Don't Pass the Peppa Sauce, which promises stand-up comedy and "island storytelling." The group is getting together for a hilarious night on Sunday, April 27 at Slate driven by creating and fostering an environment of inclusion and opportunity for Caribbean creatives.

"DPTPS is all about inclusion and representation of Caribbean actors on stage and film. This show gives us a platform for our culture and skills to be seen and heard," event organizers say.

Performers hail from Trinidad and Tobago, Guyana, Jamaica, Dominican Republic, Puerto Rico, Cuba and more. The show, hosted by 2023 Caribbean Life Impact Awards Honoree Jordana Persad and her team, will celebrate its sixth anniversary this weekend.

UCBLK, an all-Black variety show held at the Upright Citizens Brigade in the East Village, spotlights some of the best Black comedians in the city. 

Expect a mix of improv, sketch comedy, music and stand-up. Previous lineups have featured comedians whose credits include SNLA, Don't Tell Comedy, Comedy Central, and more, so you know you're going to get some pretty funny people in the room. 

This month's edition, hosted on Saturday, April 26, will be hosted by Justin Catchens, Shem Pennant, and Dominique Kaplowitz.

Earth lovers, tree huggers and all who give a damn about the planet we're spinning on: Mad World, the annual Earth Day celebration hosted by the femme- and queer-led SoMad art space returns for its third annual edition on Saturday, April 26.

From 1pm to 11pm at their three-story Manhattan HQ (34 East 23rd Street), this year's installment will center queer ecologies, a field that blends queer theory and environmental studies to cultivate inclusive, sustainable relationships with our environment. The lineup includes live performances, immersive installations, film screenings, a photography showcase, pop-up shops, food offerings and more. 

If you're a diehard fan of seeing Tom Cruise hanging dangerously off of a cliff or out of a helicopter or from the side of a skyscraper, this is the museum exhibit for you.

Now through December 14, Museum of the Moving Image (MoMI) in Astoria is celebrating the pop-culture phenomenon that is the Mission: Impossible film franchise with Mission: Impossible—Story and Spectacle, an exhibition that immerses visitors in the remarkable stunts and key dramatic moments of the decade-spanning series. Sections of the exhibition will be devoted to each film in the series, spotlighting each title's mind-boggling stuntwork and action sequences as well as behind-the-scenes content of how it all came together onscreen. 

Only people in the know go to these secret jazz speakeasy shows, but don't worry, we're about to let you in on the secret. These undergound live jazz performances called Daddy Rabbit are the epitome of cool.

Musician extraordinaire Misha Piatigorsky launched Daddy Rabbit a few years ago, and the series has gained quite a following. Grab a ticket here for upcoming shows at LOULOU in Chelsea. Here's the spring lineup:

— Friday, April 25: Sofija Knesevic and the Misha Piatigorsky Trio 
— Monday, May 5: Daddy Rabbit and Broadway Star Khailah Johnson 
— Thursday, May 8: Sofija Knesevic and the Misha Piatigorsky Trio
— Friday, May 16: Daddy Rabbit Presents Emily Braden and Special Guests 

This one is sure to be a fun one: the Street Vendor Project, a membership-based program that seeks to protect the rights of New York City street vendors, is launching a massive, city-wide scavenger hunt encouraging New Yorkers to hit the streets and support the city’s smallest businesses. 

The process is pretty simple: you can either create your own team or join an existing one. As a group, you'll download a mobile app to receive "missions" which include street food trivia, sampling food and more. Once you've completed the challenge, you'll upload photos to the app to gain points which will be tallied at the end of the month. Teams also earn points for every donation they raise towards SVP’s translation fund. The game closes on April 25. You can peep the tallied results and awards online or join SVP's closing ceremony on April 27 to meet your fellow players and collect your prizes in person. We can't think of a better way to enjoy some of New York's most eclectically delicious food offerings while also paying it forward. 

Register for the event right here.

Midtown’s Garment District has been home to creativity and invention for decades and, now it's home to a massive metal sculpture that seems to be "growing" out of the cement.

Titled "New York Roots," the installation by Steve Tobin is the Garment District Alliance's latest public exhibit on the Broadway plazas between 39th and 40th Streets and 40th and 41st Streets. Seven sculptures invite you to weave in an out of their roots and "reflect on relationships, families and communities coming together for a shared purpose—just as roots intertwine to strengthen a tree," per the Alliance. 

See it through February 2026.

Portraits of American First Ladies typically don't tell us much about the personality of the person. Maybe we can see a steely determination in her eyes or get a sense of her style, but we don’t learn much about who she is. Amy Sherald’s portrait of Michelle Obama changed all of that by focusing on the essence of the subject.

You can now see this iconic portrait and many other renowned works by Sherald in a new exhibit at the Whitney Museum of American Art located in Manhattan’s Meatpacking District. The exhibition, titled “Amy Sherald: American Sublime” is open April 9-August 10, 2025. With nearly 50 paintings, it’s the most comprehensive exhibition of the American artist’s work, which includes a portrait of Breonna Taylor, as well as paintings that center everyday Black Americans. 

Juilliard is going all out for its annual Earth Month celebrations with five free public performances that honor the planet and show how our humanity is inextricably linked to the environment.

Juilliard’s on-campus multidisciplinary student group, the Green Club, is once again collaborating with Lincoln Center for the Performing Arts for their annual multi-genre free Earth Day concert at the David Rubenstein Atrium. There will also be a free public dance workshop outdoors at Hearst Plaza in collaboration with the Redhawk Native American Arts Council and Juilliard Dance. Along with free performances and concerts from student groups like the Juilliard Fiddle Club, the Earth Day programming will include a clothing swap and other green initiatives.

Events run from Wednesday, April 16 to Wednesday, April 30; see the full two-week schedule here. 

Even if you don't know how to play music, it’s practically impossible not to reach out and strum or pluck the strings when an instrument appears in front of you—or at the very least, expect that a musician will appear to play it. That’s what makes these new abstract artworks by Jennie C. Jones so mind-bending. 

Three massive instrument sculptures now sit on the Metropolitan Museum of Art’s rooftop in Jones’ latest work titled “Ensemble.” But only one of the instruments makes sound when it’s activated by the wind. The other two don’t make sound at all, even though they’re capable of doing so. That's exactly the point. Instead, their potential for sound and the tension between dormancy and activation is where they hold power. Go see these cool sculptures on the Met’s gorgeous rooftop through October 19.

After a brilliant career as one of the all-time great Broadway dancers, Donna McKechnie (A Chorus Line) has refocused her energies on her other two threats, acting and singing. In this second encore run of her 2022 set at 54 Below, she takes on songs by Broadway deity Stephen Sondheim—including tunes from Company (she was in the original 1970 production) and Follies (she was a memorable Sally in the 1998 Paper Mill revival).  

Step into the vibrant world of Lorenzo Homar, a pioneering printmaker, poster designer, calligrapher, painter, illustrator, caricaturist, and theatrical set designer. Homar's poster work is the subject of an exhibit at Poster House titled "Puerto Rico in Print: The Posters of Lorenzo Homar" on view through September 7, 2025. 

Es-pranza Humphrey, assistant curator of collections at Poster House, describes Homar as "the father of the Puerto Rican poster." Homar was active from the 1950s through the 1990s, and few artists equal his impact and influence as a teacher of poster design and printmaking in Latin America.

His work reflected the complex history of Puerto Rico, encompassing elements of Taíno, Spanish, and African cultures as well as the rising tensions between tradition and modernity under the Luis Muñoz Marín government.

BTS member and Korean pop star Jung Kook, who was the first K-pop soloist to chart seven different songs on the Billboard Hot 100, is unveiling a new exhibition in NYC.

The immersive exhibition, “GOLDEN: The Moments,” celebrates Jung Kook’s solo career, his creative process, achievements and the emotions that shaped Golden, his first solo album, from April 11 to May 11 at 30 Wall Street. 

La MaMa's annual festival runs riot with dance in its 20th edition, curated by the beloved Nicky Paraiso. Nearly all of the participating shows are lopal, national or world premieres. The lineup includes: John Jasperse Projects' Tides (Apr 10–13); Keith A. Thompson & danceTactics performance group's Love Alone Anthology Project (Apr 10–13); a shared bill of Daniel Gwirtzman Dance Company's e-Motion and Pat Catterson's Tremor and Then (Apr 18–20); a group show of works by Hunter College and NYU Tisch MFA Choreographers (Apr 18–20); bluemouth inc.'s Lucy AI (Apr 24, 25); a pairing of Megumi Eda's solo Please Cry with a collaboration between dancer Nic Gareiss and fiddler Alexis Chartrand (April 25-27); a double bill of Jesse Zaritt and Pamela Pietro's dance for no ending and an untitled piece by Jordan Demetrius Lloyd (Apr 25–27); and Amalia Suryani's Ta’na Nirau (Apr 26, 27). The festival concludes in early May with an Emerging Choreographers Program curated by Martita Abril and Blaze Ferrer (May 1–4) and a shared program created in a partnership with the New York Arab Festival and curated by Adham Hafez (May 1–4). Individual shows cost $30, but multishow package deals are available: $45 for two, $60 for three and $95 for five. 

The team behind the lovely, Tony-winning musical The Band's Visit—book writer Itamar Moses, composer David Yazbek and director David Cromer, now joined by songwriter Erik Della Penna—reunites to tell the very weird story of Elmer McCurdy: a Wild West outlaw whose corpse toured the country for decades as a side-show mummy.

The show's Off Broadway premiere last year earned it multiple prizes, includes the Drama Critics' Circle Award for Best Musical; the cast for the Broadway transfer has not yet been announced.

One of the cleverest people alive, the longtime Daily Show head writer and @TheTweetOfGod demiurge David Javerbaum, ventured into musical theater with 2008's underrated Cry-Baby. Now he dips his toe back into the water, joined by composer Zina Goldrich, as the author of a comedic revue of songs and sketches about life in the technological age. The piece makes its world premiere in concert form at 54 Below, directed by Richard Israel and music-directed by Nicholas Connors, with a cast that includes Mary Faber, Alex Getlin, David Goldsmith, Bryonha Marie and Jason Michael Snow.

Smorgasburg, the food bazaar spectacular, is back as of April with dozens of great local vendors across three locations. Smorgasburg WTC runs on Fridays; Williamsburg is on Saturdays; and Prospect Park is on Sundays. Each location is open weekly through October. 

For its 15th year of outdoor food and fun, Smorgasburg will showcase more than 70 vendors. The food festival will be filled with fragrant Ethiopian stews, Hawaii-style street comforts, explosive pani puri, potato puff poutine and lots more.

Harkness Dance Center's Alison Manning curates a weeklong festival of rhythmic dance that patrols many different beats—including tap, flamenco, hip hop, Kathak Indian dance, Irish step dance, street dance and Appalachian flatfooting—and investigates connections between them.

Along the way, the festival also offers five afternoon workshops at 92Y, El Barrio’s Artspace PS109and the Museum of the City of New York. Find out more at the festival website. 

On Sunday mornings at 11am in Manhattan, GatherNYC creates the community and spiritual nourishment of a religious service, but the focus here is music. All are welcome at these hour-long performances of classical music by celebrated local artists. Coffee and pastries are included in the ticket price.

These upcoming events are held at the Museum of Arts and Design (MAD) in Columbus Circle. Shows are scheduled through June 2025. Here’s what’s on the calendar:

• April 27: ETHEL and Layale Chaker (violin)
• May 11: Solomiya Ivakhiv (violin) and friends: Music from Ukraine
• May 25: Rupert Boyd (guitar)
• June 8: Orpheus and Boyd Meets Girl

There lived a certain man, in Russia long ago, who was big and strong (in his eyes, a flaming glow); most people looked at him with terror and with fear, but to Moscow chicks, he was such a lovely dear. We speak, of course, of the libertine faith healer Grigori "Rah Rah" Rasputin, the so-called mad monk who insinuated himself into the Romanov court in the waning years of imperial Russia until a conspiracy of aristocrats finally managed to have him killed. The female-led troupe Artemis Is Burning invites audiences—who are encouraged to wear black—to relive those heady days of decadence and treachery in an immersive performance in the atmospheric environs of Governors Island. Set Ashley Brett Chipman conceived the show and also directs it with former Sleep No More resident director Hope Youngblood, with assistance from Julia Sharpe; those three women also cowrote the script with David Campbell. James Finnemore is the choreographer. (The ticket price includes ferry trips to the island and back.) 

A teenage girl transforms into a superpowered warrior to defend the Earth from a Dark Kingdom queen and her minions in a live musical inspired by the the popular 1990s manga heroine. Written and directed by Kaori Miura, and featuring music by Go Sakabe and the mononymic Kyohei, the show largely hews to the arc of the first season of the Sailor Moon anime series.

Live actors in colorful costumes sing and dance in front of animated graphics on large screens, yielding what the production calls "a 2.5D musical experience." (Performances are in Japanese with English subtitles.)

Ahead of The Handmaid’s Tale finale, The Paley Museum in midtown is hosting an immersive exhibit featuring the costumes, artifacts and props from the Emmy Award-winning show. It'll be on view starting Friday, April 4, through Sunday, June 8.

At the Paley Museum, “The Legacy of The Handmaid’s Tale: June’s Evolution from Handmaid to Rebel” will put you face-to-face with its costumes, including June's iconic red handmaid’s dress, cloak and white winged bonnet and Serena Joy Waterford’s haunting teal dress, as well as costumes worn by other pivotal characters. You’ll also get to see Commander Waterford’s Scrabble board, Nichole’s doll from Nick, June’s Boston map and June’s terrifying Handmaid muzzle.

Grab your paddles, pickeball fans, because the popular sport is back in Central Park all spring and summer long. CityPickle is now open at the park's Wollman Rink through the early fall. 

This is the third season for pickleball on 14 courts in the center of Manhattan—the largest pickleball offering in the Northeast. This tennis/ping-pong/badminton hybrid has become the country's fastest-growing sport, with more than 130,000 New Yorkers flocking to Wollman Rink's courts in past years. All skill levels are welcome for court rentals, clinics, open play, and private events from 8am to 9pm daily. Plus, expect summer camps, events, and special free programming. 

Forget the 14-hour flight from NYC to Tokyo, you can now discover the tastes of Japan with just a short subway ride to JAPAN Fes. The massive annual food festival just announced its 2025 dates, and the schedule is packed with events.

The organization is hosting nearly 30 outdoor events in NYC this year. What used to be just a summertime festival is now a year-round celebration across Manhattan, Brooklyn and Queens. Event organizers say it's the largest Japanese food festival in the world, attracting 300,000 visitors and featuring 1,000 vendors every year.

Here are the upcoming dates: April 19 on the Upper West Side; April 20 in Chelsea; April 26 in Chelsea; April 27 in Astoria; May 4 on the Upper West Side; May 10 in Chelsea; May 18 in Park Slope; June 7 in Midtown West; and June 15 in Park Slope.

In its latest Joyce engagement, Kyle Abraham's contemporary-dance company explores themes of Black and queer identity, resilence and social connection in a mixed bill of four recent works: two pieces by Princess Grace Award winners, Andrea Miller's YEAR and Rena Butler's Shell of A Shell of The Shell, that the company premiered last year; Paul Singh's 2019 solo Just Your Two Wrists, set to music by David Lang; and Abraham’s own latest work, an as-yet-untitled collaboration with composer Shelley Washington. 

Explore the overlap between abstract art, weaving, craft, and fashion at this MoMA exhibit. "Woven Histories: Textiles and Modern Abstraction" delves into the dynamic intersections between weaving and abstraction. See 150 works in a range of mediums—from textiles and basketry to painting, drawing, sculpture, and media works.

The exhibition seeks to challenge long-held notions of the weave as a function of textile alone, exploring the many forms both warp and weft have taken when explored by abstract artists over the past 100 years.

It's on view April 20–September 13, 2025.

Space colonists on a distant planet—some of them human, others not—are shaken and stirred by sensual alien objects in this avant-garde multimedia theater piece and installation by Poland's Łukasz Twarkowski, adapted from Olga Ravn's 2020 sci-fi novel. Performances are in Polish with English surtitles; the production includes strobe lights, very loud music and, as is traditional at Skirball Center presentations, nudity.  

It's the surest sign of warmest weather ahead: Luna Park in Coney Island is now open. For 2025, you can expect new arcade games, renovated retail outlets, and a new patio at Salt & Sizzle. Luna Park will also offer expanded hours.

Where better to send up the conventions of Irish drama than at the Irish Rep? Derry Girls star Saoirse-Monica Jackson and the estimable Kate Burton lead the cast of Ciara Elizabeth Smyth's world-premiere comedy, about a Dublin theater troupe that gets its Irish up when the writer of its Broadway-bound production strays too far from the tried-and-true path of commercial plays from the Emerald Isle. Nicola Murphy Dubey directs the show, which has been in development at the Irish Rep for several years, and Kevin Oliver Lynch, Brenda Meaney and Angela Reed round out the ensemble. 

In honor of Earth Day, Brooklyn Art Haus is presenting a lineup of prominent visual artists whose works powerfully respond to the climate crisis.

"The Human Layer" exhibition highlights artists such as Ross Carvill, Max Gordon, Julia Forrest, Nia, Tslil Tsemet and Lei Tyebie, whose pieces react to "evolving landscapes, high moments of social activism, and the relocation of humans, as an attempt to expand and shift perceptions of the onlooker," per the gallery. Along with taking in these evocative works, viewers are welcomed to participate in the exhibition by "adding their own wisdom and illustrations to form their own collective response."

You can attend the opening reception for "The Human Layer" on Thursday, April 3 from 6pm to 9pm—it’s free to attend, just RSVP here. After that, the show runs through May 29.

New York just got a taste of Paris: Printemps, the French chain of high-end department stores that first debuted in Europe back in 1865, has officially opened its first location in Manhattan at One Wall Street, a debut that's just as beautiful, luxurious and fashion-forward as you’d expect.

Spanning 55,000 square feet over two floors of the historic Art Deco building, the new Printemps blends Parisian elegance with New York’s vibrant energy, offering a curated selection of designer fashion, accessories and home décor—plus five food and beverage experiences that will basically force you to spend all day inside the shop.

NYCB leaps back to Lincoln Center with a six-week slate that includes multiple dances by two of the great choreographers of the 20th century, company cofounders George Balanchine and Jerome Robbins, including Balanchine's Vienna Waltzes at the Spring Gala on May 8. Among the other offerings in the varied season are the live premiere of Kyle Abraham's When We Fell; recent works by Christopher Wheeldon, Justin Peck, Alexei Ratmasky and Caili Quan; older pieces by Peck, Ratmansky and the late Lynne Taylor-Corbett; a program of work set to music by Maurice Ravel, comprising four pieces that premiered 50 years ago at the company's first Ravel Festival (May 14–24); and, for the final stretch, Balanchine's full-length forest romp A Midsummer Night's Dream (May 27–June 1). Visit the City Ballet website for a full schedule of events.

New York City Ballet's current roster of principal dancers includes Tyler Angle, Gilbert Bolden III, Chun Wai Chan, Adrian Danchig-Waring, Megan Fairchild, Jovani Furlan, Emilie Gerrity, Joseph Gordon, Anthony Huxley, Isabella LaFreniere, Sara Mearns, Roman Mejia, Mira Nadon, Tiler Peck, Unity Phelan, Taylor Stanley, Daniel Ulbricht, Andrew Veyette, Emma Von Enck, Peter Walker and Indiana Woodward. Veyette departs the company in a farewell performance on May 25.

Walk in the footsteps of the Astors, Vanderbilts and other elite New Yorkers who lived during the Gilded Age on this new walking tour. Titled “Fifth Avenue in the Gilded Age: Address to Impress,” the tour will whisk visitors back to the late 1800s for a stroll along Manhattan's most prestigious avenue. 

Tours, bookable here for $49/person, run on several Saturdays this spring: April 12 and 26; and May 10 and 24. Events are run by New York Historical Tours in partnership with the Fifth Avenue Association.

The Brooklyn Museum is celebrating a big birthday. As the museum turns 200, it’s marking the occasion with a sprawling exhibition that celebrates the museum's history, showcases artists from the borough and highlights new gifts in the collection. The massive show highlights hundreds of paintings, sculptures, and photographs pulled from the impressive museum’s full collection of 140,000 items. 

“Breaking the Mold: Brooklyn Museum at 200” is now open through February 22, 2026.

It's hard to imagine now in our globalized world, but many of the young American soldiers who headed onto massive ships like the USS Intrepid during World War II had never even seen the ocean before. They’d soon be navigating the Pacific, launching planes off of aircraft carriers and battling Axis enemies. 

Now, the stories of those military members are on display in a new permanent exhibit at the Intrepid Museum, the historic aircraft carrier docked along the Hudson River in Hell’s Kitchen, which served from 1943 to 1974. The new 10,000-square-foot exhibit includes 50 never-before-seen artifacts, crew member oral histories, videos and photos showcasing the ship's history.

Plus, you’ll get to see the museum’s newest WWII aircraft acquisition, a legendary fighter-bomber called the FG-1D Corsair. Planes just like it often flew off of Intrepid’s flight deck during the war.

Watermark's Pink Pier has been given a cherry blossom-themed makeover. Celebrate all things pink and all things spring at the Spring Fling Cherry Blossom Festival at Watermark Pink Pier now through the end of April. 

For the first time, the 10,000-square-foot outdoor bar and restaurant at Pier 15 in NYC's Seaport District has been transformed into a breathtaking (and very Instagrammable) cherry blossom wonderland. Expect lush pink blooms, vibrant floral installations, and sweeping views of the Brooklyn skyline, along with themed food and drinks. Prices range from $13-$550, with some ticket prices including food.

The spectacularly designed stage prequel to Stranger Things expands the universe of the popular Netflix show with an original story set in the late 1950s.

The play depicts the early years of central series characters including Joyce Maldonaldo, Jim Hopper, Bob Newby and Dr. Martin Brenner; playwright Kate Trefry, a longtime staff writer for the TV version, has devised the story with series creators Matt and Ross Duffer and Harry Potter and the Cursed Child playwright Jack Thorne. 

The Roundabout teams up with "Escape" artist Rupert Holmes (The Mystery of Edwin Drood) for a boldly jazzy adaptation of The Pirates of Penzance, the best-known show by the Victorian operetta masters W.S. Gilbert and Arthur Sullivan: a romp that bustles with sweet-hearted pirates, bumbling cops and pretty young lasses, now reset in New Orleans.

Scott Ellis directs a power cast that includes, on the outlaw side, Ramin Karimloo as the Pirate King, Nicholas Barasch as his naive apprentice and RuPaul's Drag Race champion Jinkx Monsoon as the slatternly Ruth; and, on the side of the law, the justly beloved David Hyde Pierce as the Major General, Samantha Williams as his fetching daughter and Preston Truman Boyd as the Sergeant of Police.

Whitney White has become one of the industry's leading directors, earning a Tony noms for last season's Jaja's African Hair Braiding and helming Liberation at the Roundabout this spring. In April, however, she takes center stage as the writer and performer of this musical dive into the dark soul (and R&B and gospel and pop and rock) of Lady Macbeth, as seen therough a lens of Black womanhood. The play is directed by Tyler Dobrowsky and Taibi Magar, the married artistic directors of Philadelphia Theatre Company, where the musical was seen in 2023; Raja Feather Kelly is the choreographer, and Charlie Thurston (who is in the cast of Liberation) reprises his role as Macbeth. 

David Mamet's 1983 vivisection of American hustle has proved perennially popular with both audiences and actors looking to get drunk on the play's punchy language.

The play's third Broadway revival in 20 years is directed by Patrick Marber (Closer) and headlined by four big names: Kieran Culkin—the latest in a succession of Succession stars to hit the Great White Way—as hotshot Ricky Roman; Bob Odenkirk as the creaky Shelley "The Machine" Levine; and, two of their colleagues at a crummy sales firm, stand-up star Bill Burr and comedy mainstay Michael McKean. 

Josefina López's 1990 play, about a Latina teenager torn between her family's garment factory and her college dreams, has already been the basis of the 2002 film that introduced the world to America Fererra. Now playwrights Lisa Loomer (Living Out) and Nell Benjamin (Legally Blonde) adapt it into a musical with music and lyrics by Joy Huerta (of the Mexican pop duo Jesse & Joy) and Benjamin Velez.

Following a warmly received 2023 premiere at the American Repertory Theater in Cambridge, Massachusetts, the show is moving to Broadway under the guiding eye of director-choreographer Sergio Trujillo (Ain't Too Proud).

On the heels of his Tony-winning performance in last season's Merrily We Roll Along, Broadway sweetie Jonathan Groff returns to star as pop and nightclub star Bobby Darin, who peaked in the late 1950s with such hits as "Dream Lover," "Beyond the Sea" and "Mack the Knife."

Alex Timbers (Moulin Rouge!) directs an immersive production at Circle in the Square, with a cast that features Michele Pawk, John Treacy Egan and Caesar Samayoa. The hits are strung together through an original book by Warren Leight (Side Man) and comic essayist Isaac Oliver (Intimacy Idiot).

Tucked away on Bridge Street in an old factory basement, this two-story playscape for kids and adults contains ample room for fun, including laser tag, mini-bowling and arcade games.

Laser tag games are comprised of three 10-15-minute matches, where you bob and weave around rustic columns and obstacles Area 53 has set up. Across an hour-and-a-half, you and your friends will be giggling and screaming as you "shoot" each other's guns to gain points. It's not for the faint of heart—running to avoid lasers is a workout, but a super fun one. We'd recommend checking out its "After Dark" laser tag and mini-bowling for those 18+ on Thursday nights.

Area 53's mini-bowling allows for up to six people to knock down pins across 25 minutes and its arcade has traditional games, from basketball shooting games to racing games and claw machines. 

Running through May 11, Caspar David Friedrich: The Soul of Nature is the first comprehensive exhibition dedicated to the German Romantic artist held in the United States. Thanks to unprecedented loans from more than 30 lenders in Europe and North America, the exhibition features more than 75 works by Friedrich, spanning oil paintings, finished drawings, and working sketches from every phase of the artist’s career.

"Friedrich's art evokes a watershed moment in the development of human understanding of the natural world," said Alison Hokanson, the exhibition's curator. "His landscapes mark the rise of the Romantic entwinement of nature and the self—a sensibility that intersected with the start of the industrial revolution and the growth of what we now call ecological awareness."

The show was organized in cooperation with the Alte Nationalgalerie of the Staatliche Museen zu Berlin, Staatliche Kunstsammlungen Dresden and Hamburger Kunsthalle.

Amid the hustle and bustle of Chelsea, where moving fast is a requirement, the Museum at FIT invites us to slow down and peek into its gigantic cabinet of curiosities.

“Fashioning Wonder: A Cabinet of Curiosities,” a free exhibit now on view through April 20, features more than 200 garments and accessories inspired by the many objects you might have found within these encyclopedic collections, typically owned by the wealthy back in the 16th–18th centuries. 

Some of the objects on view are being showcased for the very first time. All of them are meant to pique curiosity through their rarity, beauty or originality.

If space is looking pretty good to you right now, there’s a chance to escape to the wide expanse even if only for an hour. INTER, the experiential, multi-sensory museum in Soho, has been reimagined to be an immersive intergalactic adventure.

From the creative minds behind the Museum of Ice Cream and photography center Fotografiska, INTER, inside the old First National City Bank of New York, first opened in a beta version in November 2022 but officially opened in May 2023, with abstract digital art of images evoking natural phenomena like earth, fire and water, its own floral tunnel, an infinity room and a water installation.

But now, it has more than 10 immersive exhibits using light, sound and digital projection to transport you to another galaxy.

Need a vacation? Head to The Bronx for The Orchid Show: Mexican Modernism at New York Botanical Garden. The sprawling floral exhibition, with its vibrant colors, flowing waterfalls and thousands of orchids, makes for a transportive tropical escape. 

This year's show, presented in the Enid A. Haupt Conservatory, was inspired by the art of the Mexican modernist architect Luis Barragán. Throughout your floral adventure, you'll learn about the late artist's ethos as you stroll through meditative spaces, explore minimalist designs and notice contrasting details. The Orchid Show: Mexican Modernism is now open through April 27. Don't miss Orchid Nights, 21+ events on select nights that feature cumbia music, dancing, and drinks. 

While her ertswhile Succession brother Kieran Culkin gets down and dirty in Glengarry Glen Ross a few streets away, Sarah Snook takes a walk on the Wilde side in a solo adaptation of Oscar W.'s fanciful Victorian gothic novel about the ultimate demon twink. Snook plays more than 25 characters in a production helmed by adapter-director Kip Williams; her performance in the West End, which our London critic called "astonishing", earned her a 2024 Olivier Award.

The nuclear industry can be a complicated topic to understand, but a new exhibit at Poster House in the Flatiron District will help. "Fallout: Atoms for War & Peace" explores the global development of the nuclear industry through poster art that promoted and protested its use through the second half of the twentieth century. 

In a series of 60 posters, the exhibit digs into how scientists around the world developed the nuclear bomb and nuclear power stations following World War II. It also looks at how the development of nuclear energy led to the threat of nuclear war and—later—the development of harnessing nuclear energy for peace as an inexpensive electricity source.

A few highlights of the show include the entirety of Erik Nitsche's iconic General Dynamics series which promoted President Eisenhower’s slogan "Atoms for Peace" in six languages. Also featured are numerous anti-nuclear protest posters by the celebrated British designer Peter Kennard. 

See it through September 7, 2025.  

If you were alive in the late 1990s, you probably remember the ubiquitous 1997 album Buena Vista Social Club, which reunited elderly musicians to recreate the atmosphere and songs of a Havana nightspot before the Cuban Revolution.

This original musical by Marco Ramirez—directed by Saheem Ali and choreographed gorgeously by Patricia Delgado and Justin Peck—brings their story to Broadway, in slightly fictionalized form, after a highly enjoyable debut at the Atlantic last year. This lively celebration of Cuban music offers an irresistable tropical getaway.

The New Yorker, one of the most revered New York-based publications in the country, is officially turning 100 years old, and the New York Public Library is stepping in to celebrate the occasion.

The library has debuted a new exhibit titled “A Century of The New Yorker” showcasing the magazine's history from its 1925 launch to the present, highlighting the stories and ideas that have defined it throughout the years. The exhibition will be mounted for a full year.

Attendees will have the opportunity to view old covers, rare manuscripts, photographs, founding documents and, of course, an archive of cartoon art that defines the magazine's aesthetic. 

Lewis Carroll's trippy Alice in Wonderland books have inspired many theatrical spectacles, but Company XIV's seductive Queen of Hearts is a singular sexcess: a transporting fusion of haute burlesque, circus, dance and song. Your fall down the glamorous rabbit hole begins upon entering the troupe's louche Bushwick lair, where scantily clad server-performers slink about in flattering red lighting.

A cursory knowledge of the source material will help you make sense of the show’s three-act cavalcade of Alice-inspired routines, as our blue-haired heroine embarks on an NC-17 coming-of-age journey under the guidance of the White Rabbit.

The show runs on weekends this spring.

Having taken the U.K. by storm in productions about the country, culminating in a well-received foray into the West End, this scrappy musical comedy about a wacky real-life British spy operation in World War II now invades New York City. The entire original company of five re-ups for the Broadway production: co-authors David Cumming, Natasha Hodgson and Zoë Roberts—who wrote the show with Felix Hagan, their comrade in the comedy troupe SpitLip—as well as Claire-Marie Hall and Olivier Award winner Jak Malone. Robert Hastie directs the military mayhem. 

It was only a matter of time until Flaco, NYC's fallen owl king, became the subject of his very own exhibit. The beloved Eurasian eagle-owl used to fly around the city after escaping from the zoo, until he passed away about a year ago. 

"The Year of Flaco," a new exhibit at The New-York Historical, is open through June 6. Featuring photos and videos "documenting Flaco's flight and his new life in the city, along with letters, drawings and objects left at a memorial beneath Flaco’s favorite oak tree following his death one year ago," the program will also examine "the dangers faced by birds in urban environments, legislation inspired by Flaco's legacy and practical steps for creating a safer city for wildlife."

How is she? Ever since it was confirmed that Audra McDonald would star in the latest revival of Gypsy, Broadway fans have speculated about how Audra would be as Mama Rose—or, more nervously, whether Audra could be Mama Rose, the implacable stage mother who sacrifices everything to make her two daughters into stars. So let’s get that question out of the way up front. How is Audra as Rose? She’s a revelation. 

So, too, is the rest of George C. Wolfe’s deeply intelligent and beautifully mounted production, which comes as a happy surprise.

Journey back in time to April 15, 1874 in Paris, when Impressionist painters began creating their groundbreaking work. Through the art and science of virtual reality, you can now join them as they break away from traditional academic painting, focusing instead on capturing light, color and atmosphere in new ways.

Titled "Tonight with the Impressionists: Paris 1874," this VR exhibition will take you back to the streets of 19th-century Paris to meet the artists behind the paintings and experience key moments in the Impressionist movement. Meet Monet, Renoir, Morisot, Degas, and others as they depict everyday life and outdoor scenes with spontaneous brushstrokes and vibrant colors. Expect to spend about 45 minutes fully immersed in their world thanks to your VR headset.

The exhibition was created by Excurio in collaboration with the renowned Musée d’Orsay in Paris. See it at Eclipso, located at 555 West 57th Street. Tickets range in price from $30-$44 depending on the date. 

Depending on what you learned in high school history class, you might be surprised to discover that Brooklyn—an area firmly in the northern Union states—actually has significant ties to slavery. A new exhibit coming to the borough digs into that painful history.

Titled "Trace/s: Family History Research and the Legacy of Slavery in Brooklyn," the exhibit is now open at the Center for Brooklyn History. While there are few firsthand testimonies from enslaved people in Brooklyn, the exhibit offers clues to what they endured. It also sheds light on the often-overlooked narratives of enslaved individuals in Kings County and the generational legacies of inequality. The exhibit is free to visit through August 30 in the center's Fransioli Gallery.

Expect to see archival documents, rare personal accounts from enslaved Brooklynites and artwork that helps visitors visualize this period in Brooklyn's development. The exhibit also delves into genealogy and celebrates the work of family historians, researchers, and artists who trace their roots through this difficult past.

One of the most visited historical sites in Europe, the Anne Frank House in Amsterdam, has opened an exhibition in New York for the first time. Find it at the Center for Jewish History in the Flatiron District through April 30, 2025.

New Yorkers can now walk through a full-scale re-creation of the rooms where Anne Frank, her parents Otto and Edith, her sister Margot, the Van Pels family and Fritz Pfeffer (all Jews) spent two years in hiding from the Nazis during World War II. Inside the re-created annex itself, every object displayed in glass cases is original—things that Anne, her family and fellow hideout Jews touched and used daily, alongside exact replicas of other items.

Brace yourself for a deeply emotional experience.

Want to feel like you can practically defy gravity? You can do just that at Lush Spa with their Wicked-themed book-a-bath experience. 

In partnership with Universal Studios, the Upper East Side spa is completely decked out with Wicked vibes. There's vivid green and glimmering gold decor, including taper candles and even wallpaper that says Oz. During the bath, you’ll get to enjoy a pink-and-green bath bomb, a soap shaped like the Emerald City, and a cleanser picked for your skin type. Instrumental versions of the Wicked soundtrack will play while you relax in the tub. 

It's bookable now for $75 with appointments through late 2025.

ARTECHOUSE, the immersive art experience in Chelsea, typically features the work of a single artist exploring a single topic, such as Afrofuturism, AI·magination and outer space. But for their new installation, ARTECHOUSE has turned over the venue to dozens of emerging artists for a wide-ranging, year-long art extravaganza.

Titled “Submerge,” the show will feature more than 100 artists over the course of 2025. The work of artists from across the globe will rotate every four months amid an open call for submissions. Expect to see everything from 3D animation to AI innovation to multimedia storytelling—anything that takes creativity out of confines of computer screens and onto an IRL canvas. Submerge is open to all ages through December 31 with tickets starting at $23.85.

If you’re a fan of the Harry Potter franchise, then you’re already familiar with snowy owls, the cute and charismatic birds that served as the wizard’s closest companion.

Now, New Yorkers will be able to see the rare and mystical animals in the flesh: a pair just of them just set up home at the Bronx Zoo. You can go check out the snowy owls in the Birds of Prey section of the Bronx Zoo, which also houses king vultures, golden eagles and the Cinereous Vulture, the largest eagle in Eurasia, with a 10-foot wingspan. 

Common Country, a spanking new 3,400-square-foot country-themed bar in the middle of Manhattan will make you feel like you're somewhere in the south, complete with real deer taxidermy mounts and farmhouse beams imported from Kentucky. 

Their menu will transport your tastes buds, too: the drinks focus on a selection of Tennessee and Kentucky-forward whiskey, craft beer and cocktails inspired by the South, including Spiked Sweet Tea. There’s also a selection of Tex-Mex food, including elote fritters, cornbread, bloomin’ onion, and Texas twinkies, which are breaded jalapeños stuffed with cheese. Expect plenty of country-forward programming, too: on any given night, you’ll be able to line dance, sing your favorite pop country anthems during karaoke or enjoy live bands and DJ sets, all within theme.

When you think of Franz Kafka, there are a few words that likely come to mind: Lonely, tortured, isolated. But this depiction doesn’t actually tell the full story of Kafka, a new exhibit at The Morgan Library & Museum argues. Yes, the Czech writer known for his surrealist literary masterpieces like The Metamorphosis, did have a difficult life before dying at the age of 40 from tuberculosis.

But he was also known to be funny, a brilliant love letter writer, a good friend, and even a playful spirit. In fact, many of the solo photos we see of Kafka were really photos with other people who have been cut out of the scene over the years, Sal Robinson, curator at The Morgan explained during a tour of the new exhibit. The show, simply titled "Franz Kafka," is now on view through April 13, 2025.

In the 1950 film masterpiece Sunset Boulevard, Hollywood glamour is a dead-end street. Stalled there with no one coming to find her—except perhaps to use her car—is Norma Desmond: a former silent-screen goddess who is now all but forgotten. Secluded and deluded, she haunts her own house and plots her grand return to the pictures; blinded by the spotlight in her mind, she is unaware that what she imagines to be a hungry audience out there in the dark is really just the dark.

A new exhibit at The New York Historical showcases the ways the role of our furry friends has changed since the 1700s, becoming ingrained in the city’s evolution from the wilderness to an urban environment. The exhibit, titled “Pets and the City,” gathers together countless works of art, documents and memorabilia in order to paint a complete picture of New York’s animal history through the years.

Brought together by Roberta J.M. Olson, the museum’s curator of drawings emerita, this show brings you to early portraits of our favorite pets and their owners and images that capture the expanding definition of household animals and pop culture’s fascination with our four-legged friends. 

If Netflix’s Squid Game is one of your favorite shows, 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. 

Get tickets here.

Explore the legacy of Belle da Costa Greene (1879–1950). The Morgan’s first director, she is one of the most prominent librarians in American history. American financier J. Pierpont Morgan hired her as his personal librarian in 1905. After Morgan’s death in 1913, Greene continued as the librarian of his son and heir, J. P. Morgan Jr., who transformed his father’s library into the public institution we know today.

A new exhibition about her, "Belle da Costa Greene: A Librarian's Legacy" runs through May 4, 2025 at The Morgan. 

As the Revolutionary War came to a close, British Loyalists and soldiers evacuated the colonies in droves. But the evacuation was more complicated for Black Loyalists, some of whom joined the British cause in response to offers of freedom. 

In 1783, the new government formed a special committee to review the eligibility of some Black Loyalists to evacuate with the British Army, and that committee met at Fraunces Tavern in Lower Manhattan. A new permanent exhibit at the Fraunces Tavern Museum explores this important moment in history. 

The exhibition first opened last year, and officials are now moving it to a larger permanent gallery within the museum. The new space will offer a chance to include recent new discoveries of significant information concerning the identities of individuals participating in the Birch Trials and their inclusion in the Book of Negroes.

This fascinating 90-minute tour introduces you to all the secrets of the 200-year-old Basilica of St. Patrick’s Old Cathedral. Enter areas off-limits to the public, including the Henry Erban Organ, the cemeteries, and top it all off with an exclusive walk-through of the Catacombs themselves.

Even better, you will experience the whole tour by candlelight (romantic, if you ignore the dead bodies part). This unique and historic site serves as the final resting place for many prominent New Yorkers, including the Delmonico Family, General Thomas Eckert (a confidant of Abraham Lincoln), Honest John Kelly of Tammany Hall and the first resident Bishop of New York, Bishop John Connolly. 

On October 27, 1904, New Yorkers dressed in their finest clothing and hosted dinner parties to celebrate the big news of the year. After four years of messy, sometimes controversial construction, a subway had opened in New York City. Officials didn't know if people would show up for its debut, but more than 100,000 people descended beneath the ground that evening to traverse the system's 9 miles and 28 stations. The next day, a Sunday, more than 1 million people showed up on the subway's first full open day. 

It may not seem like a big deal to us now, but the subway was revolutionary—and it still is. A fascinating new exhibit at the New York Transit Museum in Brooklyn digs into the history and the future of our underground rail system. Titled "The Subway Is...," the exhibition brings together artifacts, photos, multimedia installations, old advertisements, train models and more to tell the story of our city's subway system. 

PJ Adzima, who currently plays the hopeful but hopelessly repressed Elder McKinley in Broadway's The Book of Mormon, hosts a neovaudevillian monthly variety show at the Slipper Room that proffers an eclectic mix of musical-theater, comedy, drag, circus and burlesque performances. A down-and-dirtier version of the show also plays there every week on Saturdays at midnight.

Pieces Bar has been a West Village staple for more than three decades. And for 18 years of that tenure, the historic spot has played host to one of New York City’s best bingo nights.

Every Sunday, guests can enjoy Happy Hour Drag Bingo hosted by drag queen Chaka Khanvict, with seating starting at 5pm and the game starting at 6pm. Grab your game board—$5 for a single, $10 for a page of four or $20 for three sheets of four boards for the best chances to win big—and play for amazing prizes like tickets for two to the Broadway Comedy Club, merchandise from Absolut Vodka and Andrew Christian, and a VIP Pieces Card, which gets you a free drink every day for a month.

Speaking of drinks, happy-hour specials include $6 margaritas, mimosas, bellinis and Bloody Mary, plus $8 Long Island Iced Teas from 2pm to 8pm.

Pop on over to American Dream in East Rutherford, New Jersey for an immersive experience dedicated to bubbles. This surreal and colorful world promises to delight all ages with themed rooms, fantastic landscapes, and VR tech. 

Bubble Planet promises to challenge imagination, amaze with the magic of science, and unleash the inner child in all. Expect to see oversized bubbles, balloons, and more in this sensory playground.

When Robert A. Caro's The Power Broker was first published 50 years ago, the book's release was met with great anticipation. Excerpts in The New Yorker gained lots of attention—including from the biography's subject, NYC government official Robert Moses, who described the deeply researched book as "venomous." Even so, it was impossible to predict whether a 700,000-word biography would resonate with readers. 

The book quickly earned acclaim, winning the Pulitzer Prize and finding a home on bookshelves across America, especially among New Yorkers. Now, five decades later, the monumental work still resonates for its look at NYC’s past and the lessons it holds for our future. The book and its tenacious author are the subject of a new exhibit at The New-York Historical titled “Robert Caro’s The Power Broker at 50." See it at the Upper West Side museum through August 3, 2025. 

Fancy gowns and celebrity outfits are no strangers to museum collections. But the everyday clothing found in closets across America typically gets overlooked by fashion exhibits.

A new show coming to The New York Historical, titled "Real Clothes, Real Lives: 200 Years of What Women Wore,” changes that. The newly announced exhibit will feature everyday women’s clothing from the past two centuries, including a well-worn Depression-era house dress, a college girl’s psychedelic micro mini, and an Abercrombie & Fitch wool suit bought off-the-rack in NYC in 1917 that was remade into a Relief uniform worn behind enemy lines in France. See the exhibition through June 22, 2025.

Start your weekend off right at Time Out Market New York’s stunning rooftop! Friday Night Vibes gets the party going on the fifth floor at 7pm with tunes from DJ Stretch (on the first and third Friday of every month) and DJ Price Is Right (on the second and fourth Friday).

Dance the night away with specialty cocktails from the Market’s awesome bar and grab bites from one of two dozen kitchens including, Jacob’s Pickles, Bark Barbecue and Wayla. Enjoy it all to the incredible views of the East River, the NYC skyline and the Brooklyn and Manhattan Bridges. 

Hulu’s Only Murders in the Building has been giving us murders to solve for three seasons, and now as the fourth season debuts, it’s giving us one more mystery to solve—in person. Hulu and The Escape Game, located in midtown, have partnered up to create The Only Murders in the Building Escape Game.

The escape game is played across a couple of rooms that have been outfitted to look like the Arconia hallway and Charles’ apartment. You have 60 minutes to escape and if you need a clue, there’s a red button you can smash that plays a snippet from the theme song when you push it. Staffers then shell out an idea for you to try. There also may have been hidden bookcase doorways, a laser and even a water feature puzzle. Check it out now because it’s on for a limited time!

As Edgar Allan Poe once wrote, "What care I how time advances? I am drinking ale today." His words serve as the toast to kick off the weekly Literary Pub Crawl, which highlights the fascinating literary history around New York City, particularly in Greenwich Village.

Though the Literary Pub Crawl has a long history in New York City—25 years, 200 authors and 2,000 beers—it remains one of the more under-the-radar walking tours around town. This Saturday afternoon activity offers a chance to learn a lot while sipping your drink of choice, bringing a whole new definition to "get lit."

The tour runs about three hours, totaling a mile of walking. Tickets cost $49/person, plus bring along some cash if you'd like to buy drinks. You'll leave having learned something, having sipped a few drinks, and hopefully feeling inspired to go read.

This sprawling 16,000-square-foot space in Bushwick, designed to double as a concert venue and nightclub for up to 1,200 people, is the city’s first new wooden roller skating rink in over a decade.

Xanadu is decorated with a giant black-and-white photo of a group of young Black skaters taken over 40 years ago, a model for the energy in the room today. There’s also a rinkside bar, serving drinks with names like Skaterade and Purple Rain with direct sightlines of all the action on the wood. And in the bathroom, a surprise DJ spins a soundtrack for patrons to dance to as they wash their hands, a cheeky setup Kataria calls, “Club Flush.”

Mercer Labs, Museum of Art and Technology is a unique new immersive museum created by Roy Nachum, the artist behind Rihanna’s famous 2016 “Anti” album cover, and his business partner Michael Cayre, a real estate developer. 

The 36,000-square-foot space opened in early 2024 at 21 Dey Street, inside the bank building that used to be part of the now-nextdoor Century 21. There are a total of 15 different rooms to explore, each one attacking all the senses upon entrance.

Some outstanding installations include the one that the staff refers to as "The Dragon," where a total of 500,000 individual LED lights hung on strings adorn a room and are lit up to created 3D videos, including one of a galloping horse, that will catch your attention.

This museum serves as a love letter to the enigmatic street artist known only as Banksy. The Lower Manhattan venue features the largest collection of Banksy’s life-sized murals and artwork in the world. 

After passing through an industrial door, you'll see a city of walls a.k.a. Banksy's ideal canvas. By its nature, street art is impermanent, but this museum offers a long-term space for the ephemeral. Many of the re-creations at the museum no longer exist on the street. Expect to see more than 160 works on display in this celebration of the artist.

Just a programming note: The production at the museum is unauthorized and unaffiliated with the artist.

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.

The club has debuted "The Second City Presents The Mainstage Revue 1: Ruthless Acts of Kindness," a completely original NYC revue, which has been created in conversation with the audience over the last ten-weeks.

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.

Grand Bazaar is one of NYC’s oldest and largest marketplaces where you can buy vintage treasures, antiques, clothing and more goodies from more than 100 local merchants. Photographers, jewelers and furniture designers sell their best on Sundays between 10am and 5pm on the Upper West Side (77th Street at Columbus Avenue). 

Each week offers a different theme, from featuring women-owned businesses to focusing on handmade items to spotlighting international wares. The market runs both indoors and outdoors each week all year long.

Puttery is an adults-only mini-golf and nightlife destination that just opened at 446 West 14th Street by Washington Street in the Meatpacking District and is backed by, among others, Irish professional golfer Rory McIlroy.

The first location of its kind in New York, Puttery spans 24,000 square feet over five levels that feature an underground lounge and a total of three bars, including a rooftop one that will be open year-round (yes, there will be heat lamps on site). 

Every day, our staffers are eating, drinking, partying, gigging and generally appreciating their way throughout this fair town of ours. Which makes pinning down the most essential New York activities kinda…tough. We need to include the classics, naturally—art museums in NYC, stellar New York attractions, killer bars and restaurants in NYC—but also spotlight the more recent or little-known gems that we truly love. Consider the below your NYC Bible.