Summer in New York City is great, but for our money, winter is when the Big Apple is at its most active, as locals and visitors alike congregate to ** parks to skate, gaze at the Rockets' kick line, or shop shop along Fifth Avenue. While some seasonal treats are evergreen—like the Christmas tree at Rockefeller Center, which is 80 feet tall this year—there are plenty of new restaurants, hotels, bars, theaters, and exhibitions to be excited about this winter. From the Sondheim trio to the new wood-fired restaurant of the Danish culinary genius, here are seven exciting ways to explore the city this holiday season.
After the pandemic wreaked havoc on American theaters, Broadway is slowly making a comeback with a series of A-list-led plays and plays. Although "Let's Be Happy Together" was a notorious failure when it was released in 1981, Stephen Sondheim's ** drama was well-received in a revival of the reimagined starring Jonathan Grove, Tony Award winner Lindsay Mendes, and Harry Potter himself, Daniel Radcliffe. On the other side of Times Square, Josh Groban and Annalie Ashford will star in another Sondheim classic, Sweeney Todd: The Devil's Barber of Fleet Street, until February 9, when they will hand over the bloody roles to Aaron Twit and Sutton Foster. The newly renamed and renovated James Earl Jones Theatre, the Book of Mormon duo Andrew Lannells and Josh Gad are showing off their megawatt comedic chemistry in Gutenberg!Drama!(Spoiler alert: each show includes a special guest star, with previous cameos including Lin-Manuel Miranda, Vanessa Williams, and Cynthia Erivo.)
If you're more of a non-** drama, Danny Devito starred with his daughter Lucy in the sweet hoarder drama I Need That, directed by Smash creator Theresa Rebeck, until December 30. Two-time Pulitzer Prize finalist Branden Jacobs-Jenkins will make her Broadway debut with Appropriate, telling the story of a family fighting over their father's legacy on a crumbling plantation in Arkansas. The star-studded orchestra includes Sarah Paulson, Elle Fanning and Corey Stoll.
HBO's lavish period drama The Gilded Age is finally back for its highly anticipated second season. Fans who want to embrace the glamorous spirit of the late 19th century should book a stay at the recently opened Fifth Avenue Hotel, which occupies a newly built glass tower and a landmark Italian Renaissance-style bank, designed by MCKIM, MEAD & White, and the architectural firm behind the arches of the Brooklyn Museum, Columbia University campus, and Washington Square Park.
Behind the hotel's stately façade are minimalist colors and textures that reference the exuberance of the era: expect jewel-toned chandeliers, crystal knick-knacks that look like fruit and flowers, melted hard candy, arched green windows that serve as room dividers, oversized floral motifs or tiger stripes bursting from statement carpets, bar trolleys studded with lizard-shaped handles, and dressing tables painted with colorful Chinese dragons inside the doors. At the wood-panelled Portrait Bar, bar director Darryl Chan brings modern and classic cocktails (he describes London's St James cocktails as "afternoon tea with English milk punches") as well as haute canapés, while renowned chef Andrew Carmellini offers sumptuous dishes like Bunny Cacciatore and Lobster Brunello with Caviar at Café Carmellini.
Want to know what makes director Spike Lee tick?Then do the right thing and head to the Brooklyn Museum for its expansive new retrospective, "Spike Lee: Creative Sources," which runs through Feb. 4. The Oscar-winning director forever shaped the public's imagination of the borough in which he lived (he was born in Atlanta in 1957 and moved to Brooklyn as a child), and this exhibition includes more than 450 works from his personal collection, revealing his creative inspirations. Works by prominent Black artists such as Kehinde Wiley, Deborah Roberts, and Michael Ray Charles share gallery space with old **, sports and film memorabilia, and musical instruments played by famous ** artists.
George Balanchine revolutionized the holiday season when he debuted his version of The Nutcracker in 1954. The New York City Ballet still performs his original choreography at Lincoln Center every holiday (Nov. 24 – Dec. 31), but the Big Apple is filled with new versions of the classic ballet.
The Kings Theatre, a gorgeously restored 1929 movie palace in the depths of Brooklyn, is hosting the touring show The Nutcracker!The Magical Christmas Ballet (December 6) and The Nutcracker in Brooklyn (December 16), a blend of global dance genres (flamenco, hip-hop, Ukrainian Hopak, Native American hoop dance), features characters traveling through the borough. Finally, keep the kids at home, **The Red Nutcracker by XIV (Nov. 16 – Jan. 27), a classic burlesque show full of witty wit and.
To experience one of the city's most exciting new restaurants, take the G train to Greenpoint, Brooklyn's northernmost neighborhood, where Danish-born chef and NOMA co-founder Mads Refslund opened his culinary playground in an old rubber factory warehouse. Named after the Danish words for "fire" and "ice", Ilies is a highly creative dining venue where you can make your own à la carte dishes (five-course meals, starting at US$150) instead of the prescribed tasting menu. Seasonal ingredients for the evening – such as eel, scallops, bison or beets – can be eaten cold or cooked over a wood fire. The menu is constantly changing, but you may find dishes such as grilled tuna with sunflower miso, beets with bison tartare, or grilled eel with marigolds for painting on extra Japanese tare glaze. The drink is just as whimsical: a smoked clam and tomato water mixture in a surf clam shell sealed together with beeswax.
It's dressing up season, and the Metropolitan Museum of Art is dressing up the best for Costume Institute's winter exhibition, "Women Dressing Women" (Dec. 7–March 3), which focuses on women designers and women-led fashion houses. Among the approximately 80 looks on display are works by big names such as Elsa Schiaparelli, Miuccia Prada, Diane von Furstenberg, Donna Karan and Vivienne Westwood, as well as lesser-known figures from 20th-century fashion history, including Ann Lowe, who designed Jacqueline Kennedy's 1953 wedding dress.
There will be many creative ways to engage with fashion during the exhibition, including curatorial talks, a touch event centered on the audience of the Museum for the Visually Impaired (15 January), and an immersive workshop with Collina Strada's designer Hillary Taymour, where guests will learn about sustainable fashion and make their own upcycled garments. Metrograph, an independent cinema in the heart of the city, will begin hosting a supplemental film series called "Women Dress: From Runway to Screen" on December 8, which focuses on actresses dressed in iconic female designers looking on screen.
In 2019, the Shedd Center for the Arts shook the city's cultural scene when it opened in a striking building in Hudson Yards;This winter, the premiere of another Sondheim play, Here We Are, will be held here, which was completed after the maestro passed away in 2021. Further downtown, the Perelman Center for the Performing Arts (PAC NYC) joined it this fall when it opened in a marble-covered cube next to One World Center. The space's inaugural season includes conversations with Jada Pinkett Smith and Kerry Washington;Ben Platt and Brian Stokes Mitchell's ** will;A new one-man show written and performed by Laurence Fishburne;and plays by the Intertribal Indigenous Sketch Comedy Troupe in the 1491s.
Another New York City icon, chef Marcus Samuelsson, will be appearing at the PAC NYC Hall with his new restaurant, Metropolis. Inspired by the immigrant communities that make up all five boroughs, the James Beard Award-winning chef can expect dishes like Flushing-style oysters with xo sauce and oyster leaves, smoked hamachi tacos, and aged Long Island duck with mole and winter plums.