Top Events / WestSide

Macy’s Flower Show
Macy’s Herald Square
151 W. 34th St.
phone: 212-695-4400|
“Outside in Broadway Plaza, beautifully bright floral arrangements will channel South Asia for this year’s Macy’s Flower Show, The Painted Garden. Guests will be treated to such sights as a ceremony-ready elephant draped in jewel-toned flowers, brightly colored tree trunks and “bouquets of the day” from talented florists. Special events including live music, kids’ activities and seminars will also take place throughout the show. For more information and a full schedule of events, visit macys.com. (nycgo.com)”

New York International Auto Show
Jacob K. Javits Convention Center, 655 West 34th Street,
(212) 216-2000,   autoshowny.com.
Automotive extravaganza. Regular show hours are daily from 10 a.m. to 10 p.m., except Sunday when the hours are 10 a.m. to 7 p.m. Tickets range from $15 for daily admission ($5 for those 12 and younger) to $35 for an early-access pass.

Wycliffe Gordon Big Band: Within Our Gates
Symphony Space, 2537 Broadway, at West 95th Street
8 p.m. $45, $38 for members, $15 for 30 and under
(212) 864-5400, symphonyspace.org
“About a dozen years ago Mr. Gordon, a jocular trombonist then in the ranks of the Jazz at Lincoln Center Orchestra, presented his first work for big band, as a soundtrack to the 1925 silent film “Body and Soul,” by Oscar Micheaux. So this concert is a sequel of sorts, involving “Within Our Gates,” an earlier and more pointed Micheaux film, for a large ensemble with three vocalists (including Mr. Gordon himself). The concert is a cornerstone of the Harlem Resonance festival at Symphony Space, which runs through May 11. — NATE CHINEN, NYT”

Gwen Welliver
New York Live Arts, 219 West 19th Street, Chelsea
At 7:30 p.m.; $15 to $20, $16 for students and 65+.
(212) 924-0077, newyorklivearts.org
“Ms. Welliver is that rare choreographer who can make the simplest motions seem inexplicably resonant: fingertips tracing an arc through space; a knee lifting at a 90-degree angle. That quality should be even more pronounced when she performs with the wonderful cast she’s assembled for her new work, “Beasts and Plots”: Julia Burrer, Beth Gill, Kayvon Pourazar and Stuart Singer. It sounds as if there will be some elements of fantasy too: the publicity materials say “Beasts” is “a semi-narrative work that explores the outline of a woman’s body, a death and the idea of a unicorn.” (Burke) NYT”

Monterey on Tour
Blue Note, 131 West Third Street, Greenwich Village,
At 8 and 10:30 p.m., $45 at tables or $30 at the bar
475-8592,  bluenote.net;
“Conceived as a 55th-anniversary celebration for the Monterey Jazz Festival, this all-star package has been barnstorming the country almost without pause since early January — an impressive fact made all the more so by the stature of the personnel, who could have found other things to do. Along with the bassist Christian McBride, serving as musical director, the group features the singer Dee Dee Bridgewater, the trumpeter Ambrose Akinmusire, the saxophonist Chris Potter, the pianist Benny Green and the drummer Lewis Nash. (Chinen) NYT”

Bill T. Jones/Arnie Zane Dance Company
Joyce Theater
2 and 8 p.m, $10 to $69
175 Eighth Avenue, at West 19th Street
(212) 242-0800 / joyce.org
‘The company celebrates its 30th anniversary with “Play and Play: An Evening of Movement and Music,” two programs that highlight the interplay between dancers and musicians, accompanied live by the Orion String Quartet. Program A features some of Mr. Jones’s classics, including “D-Man in the Waters” and the exhilarating “Continuous Replay.” Program B offers two new dances closely tied to their scores: “Ravel: Landscape or Portrait?” and “Story,” set to Franz Schubert. — SIOBHAN BURKE, NYT”

Before making final plans, we suggest you call the venue to confirm dates and check times, as schedules are subject to change.

SPECIAL EXHIBITIONS @ 3 MUSEUMS:
(Museum Mile & other Fifth Avenue area Museums)

‘The Path of Nature: French Paintings from the Wheelock Whitney Collection, 1785-1850’ (through April 21)
“Impressionism, Fashion and Modernity” (through May 27)
“African Art, New York, and the Avant-Garde” (through Sept. 2)
Metropolitan Museum of Art: 1000 5th Ave,@ 82nd street /
(212) 535-7710, metmuseum.org

“Zarina: Paper Like Skin” (through April 21)
“Gutai: Splendid Playground” (through May 8)
“No Country: Contemporary Art for South and Southeast Asia” (through May 22)
 “The Hugo Boss Prize 2012: Danh Vo’” (through May 27)
Guggenheim Museum: 1071 Fifth Avenue, at 89th Street, /
(212) 423-3500, guggenheim.org.

“Drawing Surrealism” (through April 21)
“Degas, Miss La La and the Cirque Fernando” (through May 12)
Morgan Library & Museum: 225 Madison Avenue, at 36th Street, /
(212) 685-0008, themorgan.org.