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Review: Governors Ball 2019 Music Festival, Randalls Island, New York City
Set in the middle of New York City’s East River on Randall’s Island, the three-day Governors Ball music fest offers a wide-ranging mix of music and culinary delights that will appeal to all. Bold...
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WorldPride Kicks Off in New York City with Opening Event Featuring Whoopi...
WorldPride opened in New York City with a star-studded event Wednesday night at the Barclays Center in Brooklyn, which was bathed in rainbow lights. The WorldPride Opening Ceremony was hosted by Whoopi...
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Millions Celebrate WorldPride 2019 and Stonewall 50 in New York City
WorldPride, the largest LGBTQ gathering in the world, concluded Sunday evening in New York City after marchers and spectators flooded the city’s streets in celebration. The month-long event – the first...
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6 Plays and Musicals to See on Broadway Right Now
Our guide to Broadway shows including a major revival and six new shows that are at theaters on the Great White Way. Here are theater co-critics’ recommendations for six musicals and plays on the Great...
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New York City’s New Tourist Destination: Apple’s Fifth Avenue Flagship Store
Apple’s flagship Fifth Avenue Store, with its iconic glass cube entrance, reopened to customers and visitors alike with the launch of the Apple iPhone 11 and 11 Pro following a two-year renovation and...
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Review: ‘Little Shop of Horrors’ at Westside Theater
Theatergoers may flock to “Little Shop of Horrors” – a doo-wop musical based on Roger Corman’s low-budget horror movie about a flower shop assistant who cultivates a plant that feeds on human blood –...
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Review: ‘Forbidden Broadway: The Next Generation’ at Triad Theatre
When “Forbidden Broadway” opened at what was then known as Palsson’s Supper Club in New York City in 1982, it targeted a pastiche of the most popular shows of the day including “Annie,” “Amadeus,”...
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What’s Doing in New York City
Visitors to New York City quickly find out that the nickname “The City that Never Sleeps” is well earned. There’s no shortage of magnificent architecture, breathtaking views, and much history, not to...
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TWA Hotel at JFK Debuts Outdoor Ice Skating Rink
The TWA Hotel at John F. Kennedy International Airport announced the opening of an outdoor ice skating rink. The rink is located next to the hotel’s 1958 Lockheed Constellation, known as the “Connie,”...
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Restaurant Review: Mishiguene at Intersect by Lexus, New York City
Mishiguene. The Argentine transliteration for the Yiddish “meshugene” (in Yiddish, משוגעןע), i.e. crazy. This is the name Chef Tomás Kalika, known for his interpretation of dishes of the Jewish...
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Here Are 2019’s Top Plays and Musicals On and Off Broadway
This was an especially difficult year to select the best plays and musicals of the year, simply because there were so many good ones. Here are our theater co-critics’ picks for the six best musicals...
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Review: Metropolitan Opera Virtual ‘At-Home Gala,’ Live from the Stars Living...
In opera, glitches are typically along the lines of what happened in Richard Wagner’s “Lohengrin” in the early 1900s, when the boat drawn by a swan moved offstage without him, and he said, audible to...
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Photo Essay: Jones Beach State Park on Long Island, New York
In New York, summer to many people means Jones Beach State Park, commonly referred to as Jones Beach, one of the state’s majestic ocean parks and a barrier island on Long Island’s south shore. Jones...
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Photo Essay: Inside LaGuardia Airport’s Posh New Central Terminal
LaGuardia Airport, until recently New York’s much maligned aerodrome that was famously maligned by former Vice President Joe Biden as being “third world,” as he targeted the airport’s aging...
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Photo Essay: Jones Beach Bids an Indian Summer Adieu
They had met in kindergarten, lost touch, and reconnected years later. But there they were, sitting on the sand at Jones Beach, at one with the Atlantic, enjoying the warm (for October) weather, a...
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Fast-Moving ‘Freight Train’ Winter Storm Hammers Northeast
Days after a blizzard struck much of the northeastern United States, leaving up to 35” (89 cm) of snow in some areas, a second winter storm was blasting the region with heavy snow and accumulations of...
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Photo Essay: The Moynihan Train Hall at Penn Station in N.Y.C.
The $1.6 billion Daniel Patrick Moynihan Train Hall opened at dawn on New Year’s Day, replete with the steel, marble, and glass that is associated with train stations of another, perhaps more gilded,...
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Photo Essay: New York Botanical Garden ‘Spotlight on Orchids’
The pandemic has meant many changes for New York’s cultural institutions, among them the New York Botanical Garden. Each year, the garden presents a highly regarded orchid exhibition but, amidst the...
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Lord & Taylor Turns the Lights Off for the Final Time
Shoppers admiring Lord & Taylor’s iconic holiday windows at the Fifth Avenue store Lord & Taylor on Saturday closed the doors and turned off the lights at its remaining stores, ending its run...
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Broadway Will Reopen… Once the Details Get Worked Out
“Step, kick, kick, leap, kick, touch – Again!” The iconic opening from “A Chorus Line,” which opened in 1975 and was once Broadway’s longest running show, is familiar to anyone who has worked on the...
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Restaurant Review: Daniel on the Upper East Side in New York City
Dining in New York City took a new turn as thermometers moved towards the freezing mark and restaurateurs took up the challenge to create outdoor dining options that banished the cold, more or less,...
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Coronavirus News Update – Sept. 22: Cashier Shot in Mask Dispute in Germany,...
Straßenbahn Line 19 running on the Maximilianstraße in Munich Germany remained in shock after the killing of a 20-year-old gas station cashier following an argument over a face mask. The shooting,...
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Theater Review: ‘Six – The Musical’ at Brooks Atkinson Theatre
You’ve probably not heard much about the wives of Henry VI or Henry VII, monarchs who preceded Henry VIII and who had just one wife each. Henry VIII, on the other hand, is best known for his six...
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Review: ‘The Daughter-in-Law’ at Mint Theater Company at New York City Center
D.H. Lawrence is not the first playwrights one would think of when it comes to plays, but the truth is that he wrote five – including “The Daughter-in-Law” – and few were staged during his lifetime....
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Photo Essay: Jones Beach Bids an Indian Summer Adieu
The summer of 2022 in New York State may become known as the summer everyone saw sharks. Shark sightings became almost commonplace and reports of shark attacks – something foreign to New York...
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Fifth Avenue in New York City to Go Car Free and Rockefeller Center to Ban...
Rockefeller Center and the Rockefeller Center Christmas Tree in 2019 The holiday season is upon us with the observance of Thanksgiving on Thursday and New York City is making its streets more...
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Theater Review: ‘Camp Siegfried’ at Tony Kiser Theatre – ‘Anyone Can Be Seduced’
“We’re Going to Hang out the Washing on the Siegfried Line” was a popular song at the start of the Second World War – and one of several reasons my father, born Siegfried Franz Spira, opted to change...
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Review: ‘Merrily We Roll Along’ at New York Theatre Workshop
Mention the Sondheim-Furth musical “Merrily We Roll Along” to some and it will elicit groans. “It’s not my favorite,” a friend and drama critic said to me in hushed tones. Indeed, after garnering...
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Review: ‘Between Riverside and Crazy’ at the Helen Hayes Theater
Having grown up on Riverside Drive in New York City, I was particularly interested in the play “Between Riverside and Crazy” which, it turns out, is about a retired, recently widowed New York City...
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London’s Ambassador Theatre Group to Merge with Broadway’s Jujamcyn Theaters
The Savoy Theatre in London The Ambassador Theatre Group, an international theater company headquartered in the United Kingdom with operations Britain, Germany, and the United States, and Jujamcyn...
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Photo Essay: New York Botanical Garden ‘The Orchid Show – Natural Heritage’
Each year, the New York Botanical Garden, located at Bronx Park, presents a highly regarded orchid exhibition, and this year is no exception. For the uninitiated, the New York Botanical Garden is a...
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‘Funny Girl’ Ends Tumultuous But Ultimately Successful Broadway Run After...
The 2022 revival of “Funny Girl,” which seemed doomed to failure with star Beanie Feldstein in the much-hyped production, ended a nearly 600 performance run after major casting changes took place last...
View ArticleBriefly Noted: ‘Bioadapted’ at Culture Lab LIC – Theater Review
It’s not that long ago that computers started to become a fixture in home and office, a tool we use without really thinking about it. Artificial intelligence, or AI, is in the news constantly and that...
View ArticleBriefly Noted: ‘Pay The Writer’ at the Alice Griffin Jewel Box Theatre – Review
As a wordsmith, the title and what I believed the underlying premise of the timely new play by Tawni O’Dell, “Pay the Writer,” to be seemed intriguing, to say the least, especially given its...
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Celebrating the Pan Am Building’s 60th Anniversary and The World’s Most...
The 60th anniversary of the opening of the Pan Am Building at 200 Park Avenue in Manhattan was celebrated by the Pan Am Museum Friday night with a reception at that very building, even though the...
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In New York City, Outdoor Dining is Here to Stay: Here Are the New Rules and...
Sidewalk-café style dining at Schilling Restaurant & Bar, an Austrian restaurant in Lower Manhattan New York City released a draft of its proposed new outdoor dining rules that will formalize and...
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Review: Jaja’s African Hair Braiding at Samuel Friedman Theatre – ‘A Paean to...
The 1980s television program “Cheers” was not really about beer and wine, nor was it about the bar that carried the name “Cheers.” Rather, it was about the people who, like Dr. Otternschlag in the...
View ArticleRockefeller Center Christmas Tree to Be Lighted, City to Create Pedestrian...
It’s beginning to look at least a little like Christmas. The Rockefeller Center Christmas Tree, one of the best known and most visited Christmas trees in the world, will be lighted in a public ceremony...
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Briefly Noted: ‘Dracula – A Comedy of Terrors’ at New World Stages – Theater...
There’s a lot you may not know about Bram Stoker’s legendary vampire, Count Dracula. Did he suck blood and kill people? Or did he simply blank (using “Match Game” parlance) his way (using a through...
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Photo Essay: Christmas Markets in Austria, Germany and the United States,...
One could say that one hasn’t truly experienced Christmas unless one has been to a Christmas market in Europe. They are an excellent source for traditional gifts, mugs of Glühwein, and an unparalleled...
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Holiday Train Show is Bigger Than Ever at the New York Botanical Garden
The holiday tradition of seeing old New York through its trains and trolleys is back at the New York Botanical Garden. It’s a magical experience as well as a time machine to when the old Penn Station...
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Theater Review: ‘Once Upon a Mattress’ at New York City Center Features ‘The...
A princess, as we are told in the high-spirited revival of “Once Upon a Mattress,” which opened last week at New York City Center starring Sutton Foster as part of its Encores program, should be “a...
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Photo Essay: New York City in Fog is Strikingly Otherworldly
Dense fog transformed the Big Apple into a dreamy city on clouds over the weekend. The fog enveloped not only the New York City skyline but many of its streets and highways. Fog creates an iridescent...
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Gershwin’s ‘Rhapsody in Blue’ Turns 100 This Year. One U.S. Airline Plays It...
When “Rhapsody in Blue” was first performed in New York exactly 100 years ago, it was a shot heard across the world that landed with a bold and spectacular stroke, signaling a revolution in music from...
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LaGuardia, Formerly a ‘Third-World Airport,’ Flies to the Top of Best...
The “Shorter Than The Day” sculpture at LaGuardia Airport “If I blindfolded you… and took you to LaGuardia Airport in New York, you’d think, ‘I must be in some third-world country.’” That pronouncement...
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Bach Rocks Lincoln Center With the American Classical Orchestra and Bach’s...
Bach’s Mass in B-Minor was bouncing off the walls at Alice Tully Hall on Thursday, performed by the American Classical Orchestra conducted by Thomas Crawford. The conductor John Eliot Gardiner, the...
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Coronavirus Daily News Brief – March 22: FDA Authorizes Antiviral Effective...
“Six – The Musical” is one of three musicals that have opened since the start of the pandemic and are ongoing hits. Good afternoon. This is Jonathan Spira, director of research at the Center for Long...
View ArticleFour Years After Broadway Shutdown, Have Audiences Returned to Theaters?
Four years ago, the pandemic brought live performance to a halt when then New York Governor Andrew Cuomo announced a ban on gatherings of 500 or more people across the state “for the foreseeable...
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New York Auto Show Returns for 2024 Promising an ‘Electrifying Experience’
NEW YORK — The New York International Auto Show returns once again to the Jacob K. Javits Convention Center and electric vehicles and new cars from Korea are commanding the spotlight. Show organizers...
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The Glory of Schoenberg’s ‘Gurre-Lieder’ in a Singular and Extraordinary...
Arnold Schönberg’s gargantuan Gurre-Lieder was performed Friday evening in Carnegie Hall’s Stern Auditorium by the American Symphony Orchestra and the Bard Festival Chorale under the baton of Leon...
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