Good afternoon, this is W42ST Lifestyle Editor Sarah Beling with “Make Way For The Weekend” — your curated guide to the best of New York events in one convenient newsletter!
Well I know that every single one of you spent your week wondering whether I made it back to try the New Absolute Bagels — and rather than keep you on tenterhooks, I’ll just tell you that the answer is yes. Yes, there was a line around the block. Yes, a man walking by shouted “IT’S JUST BREAD” at us as he passed by. Yes, it was worth it. Get yourself a BEC SPK and have a great time.
Have a wonderful weekend <3
…when you can only think as far ahead as Monday!
🎭 tin hat time
Maybe it’s because I read the news or because I recently “watched” (stood in the doorway turned around during the gory bits and asked my husband what happened in) Bugonia, but it seems like conspiracy theorists are a REAL hot topic rn 👀 — enter Bug, a play by Tracy Letts starring Steppenwolf repertory player Namir Smallwood and HBO’s only repertory player Carrie Coon as two people drawn more and more into paranoia, now through February 22. Let’s see it!!
🍿 love that dirty water?
Interested in the long and winding history of the Gowanus Canal? Check out a documentary about New York’s most notorious Superfund site at the Museum of the City of New York, which is screening Gowanus Current, a movie shot over the course of a decade about “people, pollution, planning and real estate on the most toxic 1.8 miles of water in America” — January 17.
🧘 let’s get physical
Enjoy a day of free classes and performances at Paul Taylor Dance Center for Education’s Winter Wellness Day January 18. You can participate in open ballet, Pilates, Taylor technique and functional fitness classes as well as take in showings from the studio’s students and hear wellness talks from authors Kara Tatelbaum and Jenn Trepeck!
🎭 for better or worse
I’ve been hearing a lot of good buzz about Off Broadway’s The Disappear, a new show about “fame, ambition, marriage and reinvention in a smoldering comedy about how keeping it together sometimes means letting it all go” starring actors’-actors Miriam Silverman, Hamish Linklater, Dylan Baker, Madeline Brewer, Kelvin Harrison Jr and Anna Mirodin now through February 22 — take your SO??? Lol.
🍿 celebrating jewish cinema
Stay warm and spend your month cozy inside with other cinephiles — the New York Jewish Film Festival is back at Lincoln Center now through January 28 with a wide range of features, shorts and documentaries from around the world exploring Jewish history, culture and experiences!
🏒 they score
OK while apparently there’s a Heated Rivalry night (complete with supercuts of the viral enemies-to-lovers couple and themed beverages) at Webster Hall on January 16 that is already sold out 😭, consider this a PSA to buy your tickets early for January 31 or February 6 and live out your gay hockey fantasy!!!!
🖼️ reduce reuse
Sustainable gallerinas! Head to Fountain House Gallery for their latest exhibit incorporating recycled, upcycled and discarded materials, Re/Invention now through March 4 with an opening reception January 16 from 5-8pm!
…what’s happening before and just after I hit your inbox next!
💎 shine bright like a
There’s something about the dark depths of winter that makes me want to distract myself with shiny things — and having previously attended the NYC Jewelry and Object Show (next up January 23-25), I can tell you that walking through booths and booths of incredible hand-crafted vintage and new necklaces, earrings, bracelets and brooches (I hear they’re coming back!!!) is very much a window-shopping therapy session (and you can, of course, buy something lol).
🎤 honoring mlk jr
Head to BAM for the 40th Annual Tribute to Dr Martin Luther King, Jr January 19 with remarks from Reverend Dr William J Barber II; performances by Ronald K Brown/EVIDENCE, A Dance Company and The Fire Ensemble as well as a screening of Just Mercy.
🎶 wall of sound
While organ music primarily reminds me of The Phantom of the Opera, the many related TikTok mashups prove that it’s kind of a VIBE — and if you want to jam out to some sick organ hits, why not make your way to the Cathedral of St John the Divine to hear pieces from The Juilliard Organ Department January 20!
📚 greed is bad, actually
I often think about which New York decade I wish I had experienced (current top pick, the 1970s at Studio 54), but I’m almost equally as fascinated by the shoulder-pad-Big-Business energy of the 1980s. That said, not everything was as cheery as a Bette Midler/Lily Tomlin comedy (see: American Psycho or Wall Street lol) — and you can dive into in a discussion of it all in Jonathan Mahler’s new book, The Gods of New York: Power, Culture, and Chaos in the 1980s January 21 at the Museum of the City of New York, where Mahler and filmmaker Ric Burns will cover the Greed is Good decade.
🎤 mandy and kathryn
Broadway, film and TV actor Mandy Patinkin and his wife, fellow actor and writer Kathryn Grody make their way to 92NY for a conversation with Faith Salie about their new podcast, Don’t Listen To Us, getting into “its madcap chaos and hard-won wisdom, stories from the couple’s 40+ years of marriage, why we need family to get by in these profoundly fakakta times and much more” — January 22.
…for when you need to secure those hot tickets before they sell out!!!
🎭 weekly logline appreciation alert
“St Petersburg, 1992: the Soviet Union has collapsed, McDonald’s has risen, and Evgeny, a young man at a loss, stumbles into a job working surveillance with his old friend Dmitri. Their target: Katya, a former pop singer with questionable allegiances and a mysterious past. As their lives riotously intertwine, Evgeny finds himself falling in love and losing his bearings, all while grappling with the taste of freedom (and fast food) along the way” in Signature Theatre’s latest, Mother Russia by Lauren Yee, playing February 3-March 15. I’m intrigued!!!
🎭 speaking of superfund sites
If you want a follow-up to your Gowanus Canal journey, why not buy your tickets for Gooey’s Toxic Aquatic Adventure beginning February 4 to see “a new puppet musical about an orphaned sorta mermaid living in Newtown Creek in her search for family amidst the backdrop of a near apocalyptic Brooklyn bought by entertainment and tech giant G’wond’rLand Inc” in a mashup between Sweet Charity, The Sopranos, The Wiz, Pee Wee’s Playhouse and 80’s body horror. Wild!!!
🔥 Hot tip
(Melting) hot tip — forget your troubles and come on get happy at the National Cheese Lover’s Celebration Weekend at Murray’s Cheese, where you can enjoy tastings, temporary tattoos and enter for the chance to win a wheel of cheese (imagine what a conversation piece that would be for your apartment!!!) on January 17. Sounds like a Gouda time (sorry sorry I had to).
🕵️ special end-of-the-newsletter song lyric reveal
This week’s subject-line lyric is from the Talking Heads’ Burning Down the House and seems appropriate for our upcoming winter chill and the general state of things — stay warm, y’all!
⚠️ Omg I forgot to tell you
There’s a free Knicks Alumni Fest January 17
Simple Brewing Company is hosting a trivia night at Cafe 424 tonight
Combat your SAD with the Winter Wonderland Bazaar January 18
Spend your weekend with Dame Julie Andrews at a screening of Mary Poppins January 17-18
You can catch Paquita at NYCB January 20-February 1
That’s it for now! Call me beep me if you want to reach me! (sarah@w42st.com)
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